Pop up park in Imagination District in Mansfield brings experiences together

Mansfield, Ohio- It is a great time for a trip to downtown Mansfield to visit Imagination Park, a temporary pop up park. The park has an urban garden, mindful play space, and dining areas in the Imagination District on West 3rd Street, between Mulberry St. and Bowman Ave. Open through October 1, 2021, there will be activities each day.

“This pop up park is a fun and safe way to bring our community together. It is outside, and along the length of W. 3rd Street, creating natural social distancing,” said Korinna Goettel, Idea Works Director and planning committee member. “The park was designed with trees, flowers, original art, pergolas, tables, and seating areas that are charming and creative.”

For Goettel, having food available to park visitors was important. She shared, “Food trucks now have a home in Mansfield at 144 W. Third Street, which is also the home of the Idea Works Kitchen. Permanent installations of electrical outlets suitable for running food trucks are now in place across from the park, in the lot next to Idea Works Kitchen.” For the food truck schedule, visit Imaginationdistrict.com.

“The pop up park was created with mindful intention,” said Annamarie, founder of Mind Body Align

production,” he said. “We used a study from the National Corn Handbook.”

“It was a long-term study conducted here in north central Ohio where increased in yields were recognized by improving surface drainage,” Gove added.

In his presentation, Gove detailed that the total probable annual benefit of the river cleanup through the ditch petition is $423,700. This is based on increased crop production on 2,472 acres.

“The total area within the 100-year floodplain is 5,500 acres, approximately, almost 5,600,” he said. “Cultivated land within that area is 2,472 acres. Using the increased crop

production, I believe it came out to about $160, $170 per-acre increase in crop production on an annual basis.”

At one point, the question was asked why existing county maintenance crews couldn’t clean up the river.

In earlier remarks breaking down the costs and discussing engineering, Gove had touched on the issue. “We can’t just go out and say, “Hey, go clean those logjams out,’” he said. “We have to follow the Ohio Revised Code, state law, county law. Because of the size of this project, we have to bid this project out.”

“We can’t just go out and hire a contractor to do this work,” Gove said. “In order to bid this work

out, we have to have plans specifications, contract documents. And those plans have to be detailed enough so that when people bid on the project, they know what they are bidding on, everybody’s bidding on the same thing.”

The preliminary project cost estimate is $664,300 with the total probable annual benefit placed at $423,700. The area involved was described as starting 50 feet south of the Mickey Road bridge in Shelby and ending on the eastern edge of the State Route 13 bridge over the Black Fork River in Franklin Township.

The ditch involved is the Black Fork River itself.

The watershed area, as described by Engineer Gove, involves 10

townships: Plymouth, Cass, Bloominggrove, Butler, Sharon, Jackson, Franklin and Springfield in Richland County plus Auburn and Vernon Townships in Crawford County in addition to three municipalities — Shelby, Ontario and Shiloh.

Specifically, on Aug. 5, the Richland and Crawford County Joint Board of County Commissioners voted to keep the process going for the ditch petition. The board voted 6-0 to approve the petition, finding the proposed improvement necessary, conductive to the public welfare and is reasonably certain that the benefits outweigh the costs.

Officials noted that the vote does not mean the project itself is approved but instead means that the

board is moving forward with the process.

The action also means that Engineer Gove will take steps with developing plans, specifications, survey, estimates and assessment schedules, according to information presented at the meeting held at the Richland County Longview Center, 1495 W. Longview Ave. in Mansfield.

“So far since the filing of the petition and getting preliminary reports, having viewings, we’ve spent $15,300,” Gove told the audience. “I believe close to $7,000 of that was just the mailings. It’s not cheap to do these mailings to over 10,000 parcels.”

A final hearing is to be scheduled at a late date.