MANSFIELD — The City of Mansfield is seeking grants totaling $500,000 to restore the former Liberty Park Pool bathhouse into an open-air pavilion.
Public Works Director Louis Andres told City Council on Tuesday evening the city has requested the funds from the Richland County Foundation and the Milliron Foundation.
The project would restore and preserve the historic sandstone structure of the bathhouse while creating a new public gathering space at the park on the city’s northeast side, according to Andres.
“It will be an open-air pavilion versus an enclosed bathhouse,” he said. “It will have ADA-compliant restrooms and a catering kitchen. It will be a nice upgrade.”
He said an on-site visit is scheduled next week with the Richland County Foundation.
“We’re pretty excited,” Andres said. “We know there is interest there so hopefully we will get that money and get that project started in March.”
In the spring of 2024, students from Mansfield Senior High School and Madison Comprehensive High School carpentry and electrician programs teamed with park district employees to to help demolish the interior of the park’s bathhouse.
The structure was built in 1937 by local tradesmen through the federal Works Progress Administration — using local sandstone.
The need for a bathhouse went away when the swimming pool at Liberty Park facility, which opened in 1936, closed permanently in August 2021 due to major maintenance issues, leaving the city without a public pool.
At the time of the closure, Mark Abrams, the city’s parks and recreation superintendent, said there was a problem inside a “water line that’s probably been buried for 85 years” that led to problems with the retaining wall inside the pool pump house.
The city had been forced to close the pool early in 2019 and 2020 due to maintenance problems.
Andres also told local lawmakers other parks projects were recently completed or in the works, including:
— an upcoming meeting with Brightspeed to discuss the company’s $30,000 donation to the city’s parks.
“(We will do a) tour of the parks and start prioritizing some of the projects they are going to be involved in with their donation and their support with internet service (in the parks), as well.”
— a new security system as Liberty Park, working with Schmidt Security Pro of Mansfield.
— two new pavilions, one at Prospect Park, donated by the Rotary Club of Mansfield, and another at Maple Lake Park, that was destroyed when a tree fell on it.
“We have an insurance claim and thankfully the insurance company is picking up the full cost,” Andres said. He said the two pavilions would be identical.
Bridge project approved in Middle Park
Council also approved spending $225,000 from city sewer funds for the construction of a new box bridge in Middle Park, a project explained Tuesday by city deputy engineer Blair McClenathan.
It’s the second project planned this year in Middle Park.
In October 2024, the city’s Board of Control approved a $42,500 contract with EMH&T from Columbus to design a new weathered-steel pedestrian bridge at the south end of the park that will again connect the 23-acre park with Park Avenue West.
That new bridge on the walking path would again open pedestrian traffic between North Lake, Middle and South parks.
The project lawmakers approved Tuesday would allow pedestrians to cross Stanfield Run, replacing a bridge that had been washed out.
He said the bridge would would allow excess to a pavilion and other areas of the park.
“There is about a third of the park that currently is not accessible because of the stream and because of the bridge that was washed out between 2019 and 2022,” McClenathan said.
In other action Tuesday, City Council:
— tabled request from Aaron and Katherine Kosht to detach 9.554 acres from the City of Mansfield and into Washington Township.
— approved the payment of $553.37 to Jeff Fairchild of 1824 S. Lexington-Springmill Road for damages to his Columbia Gas meter caused by a city mower in September 2024.
— approved the payment of $881.10 to Philip Enzerra of 95 Brinkerhoff Ave. for damages caused to his outdoor railing by a city backhoe in November 2023.
— approved the acceptance of a $150,000 state grant to help fund the Richland B&O Trail connector path to Trimble Road.