Miamisburg seeks private support for park splash pad

The issue of constructing a splash pad at Riverfront Park may be a barometer as to how future improvements to the downtown entertainment venue will be funded and budgeted.

All of Miamisburg City Council supports the 9-acre park, its $10 million master plan and the $50,000 the city’s Rotary Club has pledged to help fund the water feature. City leaders say more private funding is needed, as Miamisburg is hard-pressed to fund the millions of dollars in projects that remain.

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Toward that end, Miamisburg Vice Mayor Sarah Clark said she was against spending unbudgeted, city reserve money to finance the remainder of the estimated $220,000 water project, which was pushed through on an emergency measure with the goal of completing it before the city’s weeklong bicentennial celebration in mid-June.

“I think we need to be fiscally responsible with our reserve funds, which is where all of this money is coming from,” said Clark before council approved the splash pad legislation 5-2 last week. “And I think this is a project that we need to budget for.”

Clark noted later that “we’re rushing this project. It doesn’t need to be rushed.”

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Mayor Dick Church, Jr. supported the city spending $170,000 for the splash pad. Last year, the city spent more than $1.5 million in Miamisburg reserve funds to pay for road improvements for the park.

But Church said the city cannot afford to dip into reserves to fund park upgrades in the future.

“Our hope is that corporations in the city come forward” and be rewarded for their contributions with naming rights for future improvements, Church said.

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Rotary’s pledge “was the first outside (local) money that we’ve received for the park,” he added. “Here we have a local fraternal club that’s come forth to help us and I hope that’s going to be an incentive for other businesses and so forth. Of course we’re going to have to go out and knock on doors and try to get that aid.”

Councilman Tom Nicholas expressed similar thoughts about Rotary’s commitment. “Hopefully, that will pave the way for some private money to help us finish the park off,” he said.

The splash pad will be just inside the main entrance to the park that hosts about 60 concerts and other events annually. Located next to the regional bike trail on the Great Miami River, city officials and Miamisburg merchants alike promote developing the park to help attract people to the downtown business district.

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Informal social media polling last month on a Miamisburg chat page with hundreds of respondents showed support for the issue outpacing opposition, but not by a wide margin.

The other no vote on council came from Greg Thompson, who said he voted against the legislation because of “the location of the water feature, the type of water feature it is and basically the timing of it for this year.”

Rotary leader Jeff Nestor said he understands the splash pad concept has opposition.

“But Rotary thinks it’s a good idea,” he said. “It’s a nice way to keep things moving in the park and hopefully generate some more private money to come into the park and keep things going and keep people coming downtown to visit our great city.”

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