Winamac Park Board to Talk with Neighbors Before Allowing Changes to Veterans Memorial Park

The idea of expanding the green space in Veterans Memorial Park was again brought up during last week’s Winamac Park Board meeting. Fred Zahrt, who helped develop the park as part of the town’s tree committee, said replacing some of the gravel area with grass was part of their original plan.” The plan that I presented . . . included the whole property,” he explained, “and that included a tree or two back here and so forth.”

The problem is that there’s been some confusion as to where the park property ends and the neighbors’ property begins. It appears that the neighbors’ basketball court and maybe even a small part of the house may actually be on the park’s land. The park board recently had the site surveyed to settle the issue, but board member Brad Zellers said town officials hadn’t discussed the results with the homeowner yet.

Zahrt said the property line location hasn’t been a big issue, “because when we started, I thought, ‘Well, we’ll start a little at a time,’ and now, I’ve gotten everything done. I’m ready to move on, and I can help some with the finances. All of this along here is concrete, and it was an approach for the car wash and the gas station. All of that has to be taken out and a new entrance way or just completely close that off and just leave the one entrance way with the parking spots right there.”

Board members agreed to work with the homeowner to come up with a solution, before deciding whether to let Zahrt proceed with a park expansion project.