Greg Hildebrand President and Adam Thada VP of the Marshall County Park Board appeared before the County Council this week to seek approval to apply for a Marshall County Community Foundation grant. The Park Board would like to hire a professional company to create a Natural Features Inventory.
Thada said the park board has been entrusted with the 35-acre Mill Pond site and the 80-acres of the Memorial Forest. Thada said, looking at future development of the properties they need to be informed of what natural features are in the parks and what it appropriate to do. He said, “Our mission as a board is to steward these things for the future generations and not kind of make some unintentional mistakes that we are going to regret.”
Thada told the county assessing a natural area takes a professional skill, knowing what plants are there, the soils, the water and everything else. He said the Natural Features Inventory will help them with future development.
The Community Foundation offers grants for a variety of projects and this project is a need for the county that touches the natural resources. Their grants are due February 1st and Thada said he doesn’t have a quote yet from a company to complete the work but said it should be in about $25,000. He explained the cost saying they will make several visits to the parks during the various growing seasons, background research and document preparation.
There is a required 10% match, and the County Park Board does have the funds available for the local match. It was noted that the park’s Master Plan adopted in 2021, includes the goals of developing a maintenance schedule and asset management plan, as well as monitoring and controlling invasive species.
The County Council was supportive of the County Park Board’s request to apply from a grant from the Marshall County Community Foundation.
