Tick Ridge potential sale sparking debate in county

The Henry County Conservation Board is deciding the fate of Tick Ridge Woods County Park. Conservation Director Caleb Waters spoke about the need to do something with the land Thursday at the Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting.

'I'll admit, the lack of maintenance over the years has not been good to Tick Ridge,” Waters said. 'The Conservation Board discussed it, and we're open to selling it, but it's not going to happen overnight.”

The selling of Tick Ridge originally came up in the Board of Supervisors meeting a couple of weeks ago when a Washington resident expressed interest in buying the land. The Board of Supervisors and Conservation Director Caleb Waters have been researching whether that was possible.

'Even though the land wasn't purchased with the Land and Water Conservation Fund, components of Tick Ridge like the pit latrine were built using the LAWCON funds,” Waters said. 'If we were to sell it, we'd have to go through an application process and find land that's equal or greater in size to make up for that loss.”

Supervisor Chad White expressed his opinion of selling the Conservation park.

'They're not making more land,” White said. 'Maybe it's best to use Tick Ridge. You could turn it into a rough camping spot or something along those lines to get some use out of it.”

Waters agreed that something needs to be done with Tick Ridge, whether it means selling or updating it.

'If we were to keep Tick Ridge, there are things that need to be improved,” Waters said. 'There's 10 acres of solid timber in there that probably hasn't had a management harvest in a while, and the pit latrine is obviously a problem.”

'It's a matter of do we want to maintain the park, especially since it takes a good amount of time to get up there for our team.”

Supervisor Marc Lindeen had thoughts on the matter.

'I can understand wanting to sell it in order to not make it a liability,” Lindeen said. 'I can see it benefiting, too, by letting it become a natural wildlife habitat. I know members of the community have expressed that to me before.”

Waters said that it will be a while before the Conservation board makes a decision on Tick Ridge.

'The supervisors have brought up some good points, and I think I'd like to do some more research before we move forward,” he said. 'Whether we keep Tick Ridge or sell it, either way there needs to be some sort of change made in order to make it viable.”