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Park District News
Park District Celebrates 50 Years!
In the early 1950's Centerville and Washington Township were 90%
agricultural land and residents began to get nervous about fast approaching
development that did not have any guidelines for preserving open space. A
Committee of 100, led by resident Bill Yeck, was formed to promote the
adoption of the Montgomery County zoning regulations. In 1958 the Common
Pleas Court appointed Charles P. Burkhart, James M. Boyle and Arthur E.
Moyer as park commissioners to develop a plan to create a park district for
the growing community.
On November 3, 1959 the residents of
Centerville and Washington Township saw the importance of preserving land
for a system of parks and nature preserves and voted to establish the
Washington Township Park District. In November 1960 a one-half mill park
levy was passed to provide the first funding for the district. An Open Space
Committee was formed, spearheaded by Bill Yeck, and a map was developed
showing possible future locations of neighborhood parks and playgrounds,
large community parks and nature parks.
 In 1961 park commissioners,
Jim Boyle, Charles Burkhart, and Bill Yeck came up with an original plan to
reserve land for parks. Density zoning allowed the developers to shave off a
little bit of land from each lot and put it in a common area in the middle
of the plat creating a park for the neighborhood while keeping the same
number of lots. The city of Centerville and Washington Township revised
their zoning laws to incorporate density zoning and over the next 50 years
parts or all of 35 parks were transferred to the Park District without the
use of public funds.
The Park District has grown to 47 parks
with
over 930 acres of outdoor fun! Throughout 2009, the Centerville-Washington
Park District will be celebrating our first 50 years of nature preservation
and park development. We hope you will share in our celebration by visiting
the parks during our special events planned during the year. Information can
be found in our quarterly
newsletter and here on our website.
View the Centerville-Washington
Park District 50th Anniversary photo gallery here.
Americana Essays - Celebrating 50 Years of Open Space
The theme for the 2009 Americana Festival was Celebrating 50 Years of
Open Space in conjunction with the Centerville-Washington Park District's
50th anniversary. The first place winner of the Kiwanis Club Scholarship was
Peter Thompson, Centerville High School graduate. His winning essay was
published in the Park District's News & Events for December 2009-February
2010. You can read the award-winning essays in the high school/college
division at the links below:
First Place - Peter Thompson
Second Place - Sarah Lechleiter
Third Place - Sam Miller
Fourth Place - Christina Falugi
Grant Park BioBlitz Results
 A big thank you to all of our volunteer experts including local ornithologist Bob Thobaben, wildlife rehabilitator Gene Brown, area
lepidopterist Elizabeth Rothschild, tree guru Emmet Roth, Five Rivers MetroParks conservationists Mary Klunk and Yvonne Cecil, and Caesar Creek Lake Army Corps of Engineers Ranger Toni Caldwell for lending your knowledge and enthusiasm of wildlife to our first BioBlitz!
Another special thanks to Steve Huff, Robert Erwin and their group of campers who aided with the blitzing throughout Friday evening and Saturday morning and to all the other volunteers both from our own park district and the Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalists from Greene County for making the event run smoothly!
Visit the BioBlitz Results page to
see the list and view photos of the 159 species found.
5K Run/Walk Results
Congratulations to all
who finished the 50th Anniversary Family 5K Run/Walk at Forest Field Park on
May 23, 2009! The following will receive trophies for winning their
divisions:
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Male |
Female |
Teen |
Child |
| First |
Brian Selander |
Lenna Kirby |
Joe McCarthy |
Alex Umbreit |
| Second |
Andrew Saksa |
Claire Salzman |
Rachel Zavakos |
Mitchell Townsend |
| Third |
Robert Rudolph |
Karolyn Teufel |
Christine Zavakos |
Nathan Umbreit |
See all the results at
Key Sports.
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