Campers and residents rent shelters and camping sites at Johnson County Park across from Camp Atterbury near the southern county line.
Steam train hobbyists offer park visitors rides and multiple festivals draw visitors to the park. But park officials have teamed up with a developer to see if they can complete other projects that might draw in more people.
Big ticket items, such as repairing Dunn Arena in the horse park, have been on park officials’ wish lists for years, but officials have struggled with how to pay for them and how to prioritize which park projects were feasible and the most important.
Later this year, some projects that have been on the park wish list for years may get some traction.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Park officials have met with private companies and hired a development company to analyze parks the county parks department runs: Johnson County Park near Edinburgh and Independence Park in the Center Grove area; and see how much projects would cost and what it would take to make them feasible.
Officials will look over GM Development’s work and decide which projects should be the priority. Park officials and the developer are expected to present to the Johnson County Commissioners in late summer after park officials have had a chance to pick what projects are the most feasible.
County commissioners gave park officials permission to explore partnerships further at a special meeting late last year and said they would be on board with any projects that improve the park without costing the county a lot of extra money.
The work would be done at the county’s main park, a 622-acre park in southern Johnson County near Edinburgh. The park’s budget is about $1 million a year, half of which comes from county tax dollars from the food and beverage tax and the other half generated from park use, such as from camping site and shelter rental fees, Megan Bowman, park superintendent said.
Most of the money in the budget is used toward maintaining the park, including operating costs for aging buildings in the park, she said.
A master plan for that park lists wants as a new office and nature center near the park’s main entrance, a remodel of the park’s horse arena, a new amphitheater, a “bike playground” and a camping store on site.
The priority once the developers are done would include projects that could feasibly be done and that the community might be interested in seeing, Bowman said.
Park officials will look over the developer’s findings and lump together some projects that might be able to be done at the same time and choose which ones should be a priority based on the findings, Bowman said.
"We are trying to provide amenities to the community," she said. "We just want to provide more services and better services for everybody."
The park put out a request for proposals earlier this year and GM Development is doing a complete inventory of Johnson County Park and putting together plans, including pricing, on projects in the master plan.
Developers are surveying the park, including going through each building, to come up with a comprehensive list of what could be done, said Greg Martz, a GM Development managing partner.
Gathering the data will not cost the county any money unless they decide to move forward on projects and the park officials and the commissioners could decide to not proceed with any projects, Bowman said.
