Enriching New Baltimore
Festival Park
The largest, most ambitious undertaking in our 40 year history remains FESTIVAL PARK. Bay-Rama, Inc. purchased a 40 acre parcel of land in the city limits of New Baltimore in 1992 at a cost of $l60,000.00. The sale of 13 lots, Bay Estates, removed 6 acres adjacent to the park and generated money to help with land development costs for the remaining 34 acres. To date we have spent over $700,000.00 on this park.
The park will be developed in three phases. The first phase included the land development stages, the park entrance and the completion of St. Clair Drive which connected Washington Street with County Line Road. Also the building of Socia Drive, the park service road and land clearing. A $107,000.00 underground storm sewer project that will drain the parking lots and athletic fields has also been completed. Dirt was hauled in to fill and balance low areas. This has been a huge and extremely costly operation.
The summer of 2007 saw great progress. With the help of some generous civic minded people, Steve Grosso from Grosso Trucking, and Ken Dupell from Ken Dupell Construction and the millings from the resurfacing of M29 we were able to complete our one mile exercise path around the park. It was immediately put to use by walkers, runners and bikers. The feedback has been very rewarding.
We had planned to complete the parking lot between the two soccer fields next but decided it was more important to spend available funds to level, spread black dirt, then seed and fertilize the soccer fields. It takes at least a year for the fields to become established and able to accept foot traffic. In stepped John Cooney with valuable knowledge regarding seed and fertilizer. He donated his time and talents to helping us accomplish this goal. Thanks also to the neighborhood adults and kids who joined us picking up rocks and debris so the seeding could be done. Springtime 2008 meant that another 2000 lbs. of fertilizer was needed to stimulate growth.
Next stepped in our great benefactor Velma MacDonald. After seeing our progress she once again made a very large donation to the park. This enabled us to also complete that parking lot for 100 cars between the soccer fields.
Unfortunately the Emerald Ash Bore has continued to decimate our tree population. We have been losing about 60 trees a year and not only is it heartbreaking but it’s also back breaking as we tried to keep up with the cutting and clearing. Again we had another good Samaritan step up to offer his assistance. John Sablowski from Cold Springs Excavating and his crew came in and cut and removed not only the dead trees but cleaned up all the brush and branches. Thank you gentlemen!
Gary Pastiva and his family are passionate about the tree replacement in the park. They started a bottle and can fund raising drive at their home.
In the Spring of 2008, the New Baltimore Lions made a generous donation to the park to replace many of the trees lost over the past few years. It is because of the generosity of our local organizations, businesses and residents helping to make this park a reality!
This entire recreational complex will be donated to our city, cost free, upon completion.