Letter I wrote to the Springfield Township Board of Recreation

My name is [withheld]. I live on Finney Trail. I visit Warder Park all the time, and when I idly searched for references to it on the Internet, your plan was the first thing I found.

First I looked at the maps on the front pages. I love maps. In fact, I plan to someday get a detailed map of Finneytown, as soon as I can find one. After I saw the maps I moved on to the next page. It horrified me.

You plan to completely raze Warder Park and rebuild it totally different. I couldn’t believe it. Warder Park is untamed, and it takes all of its greatness as a park from this wildness. Unlike, say, Winton Woods or Hummer Park, it hasn’t been built over to accommodate everyone and his brother coming in. That means that there are no docks on Burke’s Pond, there are no basketball courts just off the main trail, and there is no amphitheatre in the middle of the grounds. It’s one of the last places in Cincinnati that’s like this. While all the other parks have been “fully modernized”, Warder stays mysterious and wild.

So I ask you: do we really need another tennis court, or another swimming pool? Aren’t there enough already? What we need is a park that retains an air of the unknown. I have no idea what’s in a lot of the entire park, and I can’t tell you how much I enjoy the process of finding out new things. Just today I bushwhacked back and found a brand new creek that I had never even suspected existed. There are very few things that give me as much of a thrill as discovering completely new places and seeing things I’ve never seen.

But if the new plan you have here to change the face of Warder is instituted, there will be nothing surprising. Everything will be mapped out in an exact way, and every time you go in you’ll see the same exact trails, the same exact skateboard ramp. Nothing will have changed. Nothing.

Do the taxpayers need to pay nine million dollars to have a park that maybe a hundred people will know about, that will be interchangeable with the almost adjacent Hummer Park, and that won’t be even a tenth of the size or excitement of Winton Woods? What else could we be spending these nine million dollars on? My school, Finneytown High, has recently had its budget slashed violently. All of the Finneytown School District has, in fact. There are kids who could be learning more, cops who could be patrolling more, roads that could be paved better, and countless dozens of other things that are so much more important to everyone than another new park. I don’t understand why we need to pave over a sanctuary for everyone in the town, at a huge cost, to provide something we already have. I say we nix the Warder Park plans and leave well enough alone.

Thanks for reading,
[withheld]

File under: Warder


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Anonymous

History

That is an excellent letter. Now, if you want real results be sure to take it public. Make a grassroots movement to preserve the park in its natual state.

Not only can you capitalize on the beauty of the park itself but the underfunding of public schools.

Places to raise support:
editorial of the paper
local TV news agencies - ours here in Colorado love news tips and young activists.
Find an evironmentalist group to help support this and lobby it to the correct governing person
or find that person yourself.

I guess the bottom line is if you expect something to happen then you will have to go beyond just one letter.

Toy (your second cousin-in-law)

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Matt

History

I agree with Toy. Anyone can complain, but you have to be willing to do something for it to change. I would suggest checking the local news websites to see how you can submit a story. Try cincinnati.com channelcincinnati.com wxix.com and wkrc.com. You could also try submitting to the Enquirer, Post, or even the Hilltop. In fact, I’m positive your word would get out if you just slipped me an article for the school paper…

P.S. I left a couple posts on your last two entries as well. You should check those :)

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