The city of Dayton recently approved a joint use agreement that ensures a new park that Greater Dayton School plans to build can be used by the public for many years to come.
The agreement allows Greater Dayton School to receive a $600,000 state appropriation to create what is being called Colonel Deeds Park.
The joint agreement says the park property is about 1.7 acres. The site is the former Deeds Point Dog Park, which relocated to a new space by Triangle Park.
Colonel Deeds Park will be directly north of Deeds Point MetroPark, which is a small park across from RiverScape and the Water Street apartments along the Mad River.
Ryan Ernst, director of the Connor Group Kids & Community Partners, said work got started on the public park earlier this month.
He said most of the project likely will be finished by the end of next summer but fall planting activities means that it may not be entirely complete until November.
Ernst said state funds will cover about half of project costs and the rest will come from Connor Group Kids & Community Partners, which created the Greater Dayton School.
Greater Dayton School has received a lot of praise for the appearance and amenities of its school campus, which includes a futuristic-looking school building, a health and wellness center, a gym, fitness center, full-service kitchen and labs, classrooms and other learning spaces.
The school’s grand opening was in March.
On the north side of the school is a turf soccer field, basketball courts, playgrounds and a running track.
Representatives with multiple organizations last year provided letters of support for the public park project and further investments in the school campus to try to help secure a state capital funding award.
Letters from Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr., Five Rivers MetroParks CEO Karen Hesser, McCook Field Neighborhood Association President Jerry Bowling III, Dayton Children’s CEO and President Deborah Feldman and others said the park project is an investment in the community’s future.
The public park will honor Colonel Deeds and his legacy of protecting the city from future floods with the creation of the Miami Conservancy District, said Sarah Hippensteel Hall, manager of communications, outreach and stewardship with the Miami Conservancy District.
She said planned park features include a crushed stone walking trail, large cut stone rocks for sitting and a small hill.
The land was owned by the Miami Conservancy District during levee construction and was used to place material dredged from the river channel. The city took ownership of the property but the land use was restricted by the conservancy district to park and playground uses.
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