Council considers selling portion of 90 acres

The Washington City Council discussed what to do with the 90 acres of land on the northwest edge of town it acquired from the Washington School District last year. A few councilors spoke about the possibility of selling a portion of that land to raise money for the city. Several residents spoke about the need for a wellness park or even just more flat, open green space in the city. The council agreed to discuss the matter again at a future meeting.

Councilor Mike Roth said he brought up the idea in a recent finance committee meeting. He said he, too, would like a wellness park but the city also has fiscal problems and that selling land is one way to remedy them.

?I think our community needs a wellness park desperately,? he said. ?My concern is the timing of everything. The wellness park issue has lain dormant for two or three years now. There are things we are responsible for, fiscal management is one of them, and I view this as an option to ease the hurt a little bit.?

Councilor Karen Wilson-Johnson said that while there is a group of people who badly wants a wellness park, there is another group who wonders why the city would sit on valuable land when it doesn?t have the money for budgeted expenses.

?Are all 90 acres for the park?? she asked. ?There has been talk of parceling it. People out there are wondering, ?How can we be in the red all the time when there is something we can do about it???

Councilor Bob Shepherd said 90 acres is more than the city needs for a wellness park and a water tower. He said he was not interested in taking the farmland out of cultivation.

Washington Park Board commissioner Don Pfeiffer said the school might not like the idea of the city selling the land.

?The school district awarded the sale to the city even though it was a lower offer than they had received because they felt the city would provide the best use of the property for the future citizens of Washington,? Pfeiffer said. ?I think selling it, or even a part of it, would not go with the decision they (the school) made.?

Pfeiffer said his hopes for more recreational space rose when he heard the city won the bid, because he had such a difficult time finding suitable land for recreation.

?I ran for the park board to acquire land for ball fields and level green fields,? he said. ?I have failed in 16 years to do that. We added a little bit of space at Water Tower Park but nothing for the benefit of our young people. We don?t have places for soccer. The purchase of this land raised my hopes for the future and I will wait while a development plan is completed. I urge you not to sell the 90 acres.?

Pfeiffer said the park board approved a proposed layout for three soccer fields on the 90 acres. He said the area for the soccer fields would consume 12 acres. He said it could be taken out of the lease with the FFA and put into grass next spring. He said it could be ready to play on next fall. The field would have a dirt parking lot.

Youth soccer coach Sid Ryan said the town has needed soccer fields, and green space in general, for many years.

?If you go behind Lincoln or any of the schools, it?s packed after school,? he said. ?Everybody is fighting for this little space. Right now we have 75 kids in our soccer club. There are also two adult teams in town. When we practice at Stewart, we?re coming really close to when the adults get off work. They wait patiently for us to get done. We use really tiny goals for 10 and under kids, and it?s amazing how many adults show up and wait to play.?

Ryan said that in order to hold soccer tournaments in town, all the club needs is open space with green grass.

Washington resident Amy Vetter also spoke in support of a wellness park.

?Not having this wellness park is going to hurt us in the long run,? she said. ?We continually hear conversations about how we need the green space for additional soccer, softball and baseball fields. Now is the time to plan for it, to get a group together and to find some funding sources for it. This will be an income source for our community. It will bring additional people to our community on the weekends in the spring, summer and fall.?

Greg Woller, executive director of the Washington Community Y, said he would like the 90 acres to remain city property.

?The Y and the Y board are very supportive of those green spaces,? he said. ?If you go to Water Tower Park tonight, you?ll probably see five football teams jockeying for that green space and playing on one-third of a field.?