Several years ago a large group of local volunteers and Duke Energy volunteers spent several days pruning and planting trees, trimming shrubs, and cleaning up Sunset Park.
Is this the respect that the City shows for all the hard work of these volunteers?
Who ok’d this contract and how much money did the City receive for this romp in the park?
We are told every month that the Public Works Department doesn’t have the time or the money to take care of city owned property and yet we allow this to occur?
Maybe this is an example of why it is difficult to get volunteers to help with these projects..
Mr. Duritsch I believe you have some explaining to do at the next Council Meeting.
Mess left at Sunset Park by bike race concerns city resident
By Rick McCrabb, Columnist 6:13 PM Wednesday, November 9, 2011
MIDDLETOWN — If you ask Justin Holweger about his grandchildren or basketball — two of his greatest joys — you’ll probably miss your next appointment.
That’s because, as Holweger said, he’s “a passionate old man.”
While some may debate whether being 65 is indeed old, no one will argue that regardless of the topic, Justin Holweger is vehement.
He sees everything as black and white. Gray doesn’t exist.
For the last five years, Sunset Park, which Holweger, who has lived on Milton Road since 1976, calls his “front yard,” has hosted the Cincinnati International Cyclocross Festival, professional bike races for men and women from around the United States.
The races were last weekend, and by Monday morning, following the heavy rains last week, the lush grass at the park was turned into a muddy mess. The 2.5-mile course that winds throughout the park and around its giant trees has been severely damaged by the bikes.
Most Middletown residents probably could care less. The grass will grow back, they’d say. That’s not good enough for Holweger.
To show his displeasure, Holweger sent e-mails voicing his displeasure to Dave Duritsch, director of pubic works and utilities, and other city officials.
City Councilwoman Anita Scott Jones was contacted by Holweger and asked to look into the situation and tour the park. She hopes to examine the contract with the city and race organizers this week to determine if it needs to be rewritten.
She called the damage “typical” for a bike race.
Holweger doesn’t understand why a bike organization, one headquartered in Cincinnati so it doesn’t pump significant revenue into the local economy, is allowed to use a city park, then pack up its gear and move to the next site, leaving behind trampled grass and trash.
Holweger believes the race organizers should pay a fee — he threw out a $5,000 fee — and be responsible for resodding the worn out grass. In a response e-mail, Duritsch wrote that organizers, based on the contract, are “responsible for any restoration,” which includes aeration and/or seeding.
On Tuesday night while touring the park, Holweger said: “It’s not a repair issue. Why does this have to happen in the first place? We have an eyesore.”
Holweger, a 1963 Fenwick High School graduate, said he “grew up” in Sunset Park, playing basketball on the park’s famed concrete basketball courts and swimming in the pool, once a city landmark.
Today, sadly, there are weeds growing up through the cracks on the basketball court, and the pool, because of lack of revenue, has been closed and demolished.
He can’t stand for what he called another of the city’s “treasures” to be tarnished. He doesn’t want the Old Lady to get another wrinkle.
“I love this park,” he said.
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