Metroparks board to put land-buying levy to vote

The Toledo Area Metroparks board voted yesterday to put a measure on the ballot that would generate $19 million over 10 years for land acquisition.

The board will ask voters in November’s general election to approve a 0.3-mill, 10-year levy.

The owner of a $100,000 house would pay about $9 a year, said Jim Spengler, metroparks director.

Larry Sykes, president of the board, said the levy money would allow the parks system to have more flexibility in land purchases. He cited the possibility of buying land, such as a 52-acre portion of Camp Miakonda that the Erie Shores Council of Boy Scouts of America is planning to sell.

"We have the opportunity to acquire some land, but we really don’t have the funds to buy it," Mr. Sykes said.

He said if the board had the money, it would have bought and preserved more land around Wildwood Metropark rather than see it developed into the high-end Wildwood subdivision off Corey Road.

Mr. Spengler said the levy money would allow the parks system to buy land for conservation and recreation. He said the board wants to "create a legacy of land for the future."

He said the priorities for purchase are coastal areas along Lake Erie, oak savanna regions, and property along the Ottawa River and Ten Mile Creek.

"We get daily offers for property from willing sellers, and we don’t have the funds to respond," Mr. Spengler said.

In unrelated business, the board approved a resolution to enter into an agreement with the City of Sylvania to move, operate, and renovate the Lathrop House, which is thought to have been a stop along the Underground Railroad.

Mr. Spengler said plans call for the house on Main Street in Sylvania to be moved to the city’s Harroun Park. When the move will take place and how much it will cost haven’t been determined.

The house has been in controversy since the Catholic Diocese of Toledo bought the house and its four acres last year for use by St. Joseph Church. Plans called for it to be torn down until a community group, Friends of the Lathrop House, began generating community support to save it.