MANSFIELD – A family’s love for Deer Park off Home Road in Mansfield led anonymous donors to fund improvements there.
Over the past several years the Robert E. and Andrew S. Fisher Fund of the Richland County Foundation has funded renovations to the park. A casual visitor to the park may not realize the depth of the investment. However, the area has been beautified and flooding in the parking lot has been mitigated.
The donors and staff from the City of Mansfield Engineering and Parks & Recreation
departments have met numerous times over the years to discuss plans for the park.
The first upgrade funded by the donors was the reconstruction of the bridge between the parking lot and the B&O Bike Trail in 2017. The old wooden bridge had washed away.
The City of Mansfield Engineering Department Senior Project Planner Blair McClenathan followed the 2022 improvements and managed this summer’s project at Deer Park. The donors are extremely pleased with his work.
“Working with the donors to fulfill their vision for Deer Park has been a personally rewarding project for me. I’m very excited to see more people using and enjoying the area,” said McClenathan.
The 2023 Deer Park improvements included nine new trees, 10 pull-in parking spaces striped with parking blocks, two parallel parking spaces striped, two large benches, a new picnic table on a concrete pad, new utility poles with lights, beautified stream channel and removal of several dead or dying trees.
The sandstone blocks that now mark the entrance to Deer Park were salvaged from the demolition of the former Ocie Hill Community Center.
The 2022 Deer Park Improvements included resurfacing the parking lot, installation of a new catch basin and sidewalk.