In Focus

Parks and Recreation Month

Department leaders reflect on decades of growth

Kelly Sutherland says she struggles to explain what she does as Grove City’s parks and recreation superintendent.

“There’s so much that we do,” she says.

The department is involved in a huge number of city activities, so even the most involved Grove City resident might not know all that Sutherland and her team have played a part in creating.

As the department celebrates National Parks and Recreation Month in July, its leaders reflect on the department’s growth over the last 30 years.

Since the city established a Parks and Recreation Department with a director and staff in 1973 replacing the parks department set up in 1966 under the guidance of a park board, it has grown in terms of staff, programming, facilities and operations, says Kim Conrad, director of the Grove City Parks and Recreation Department, who has been with the department since the 1980s.

Not only does it interact with many local government departments and programs, it offers something for everyone.

“We do everything from, I want to say, from cradle to grave with people in our community,” Conrad says.

The Heritage Celebration at Century Village at Fryer Park features the Ohio Village Muffins versus Century Village Greyhounds in an old time baseball game.

That includes numerous events offered year round, preschool programming, youth and adult sports, more than 125 different courses every two months (which you can find in The Source section of any Discover Grove City magazine), and socialization activities for older adults.

In addition, it provides a helping hand to several other organizations such as with LifeCare Alliance to serve hot meals at the Evans Center, American Red Cross to conduct blood drives on a monthly basis, Heart of Grove City for its special events in the historic town center and programming with the Southwest Franklin County Historical Society.

In the early years, the department had a few programmers, a director and several support staff, operating out of the old municipal building on Park Street, where the police station now sits. Staff relocated several times including to

Westgrove Park

Parks and Recreation’s Top 5

Grove City Parks and Recreation Director Kim Conrad highlights the department’s five most popular programs:

Youth team sports: The city offers basketball, baseball and volleyball throughout the year. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, there were 2,336 youth participants in fall baseball, basketball, volleyball and Little League (spring-summer) baseball.

Programmed After-school Recreation for Kids (P.A.R.K.):

The P.A.R.K. before- and after-school childcare program offers a safe place for children to be when not in school, where they stay physically, mentally and socially active. After-school P.A.R.K. operates conveniently at five South-Western City School District elementary schools serving kindergarten through grade four. Before-school P.A.R.K., which also serves intermediate school students, is located in the Kingston Center and includes transportation to schools not within walking distance provided by the SWCSD Transportation Department.

The daily after-school childcare program takes place in the gymnasiums at Buckeye Woods, J.C. Sommer, Highland Park, Monterey and Richard Avenue elementary schools. It runs from 2:40-6 p.m. every day that the SWCSD is in session. Qualified childcare providers staff each site.

Preschool programing:

Parks and recreation introduces children as young as 2 years old to a variety of recreational activities. RecSchool in Gantz Park offers children ages 3-4 nature and play-based activities to encourage learning and prepare them for kindergarten. The department also partners with outside organizations such as JumpBunch to teach early team sports skills and Bally Sports Group to offer Little Sluggers Tball & Mini-soccer Stars for children ages 3-4.

Gardening: Parks and recreation has several garden-themed programs and activities centered at the Gardens at Gantz Farm and the historic Gantz farmhouse. The gardens provide a look at horticulture through time. Park staff and volunteers have developed three main gardens to demonstrate a wide range of styles from the past and present and emerging styles, too. The Garden Sprouts program teaches children gardening from sowing to harvesting. Many classes for all ages are held in the farmhouse that use herbs for cooking, crafts and more.

Older adults: Parks and recreation offers several programs for older adults through the Evans Center. People ages 55 and older can visit the center for daily and weekly activities such as exercise and yoga, card and board games, arts and crafts opportunities, and performing arts like chorus and drama. It is home to a variety of parks and recreation classes and the starting point for trips to local restaurants, theaters and shopping destinations as well as longer overnight trips. While closed for the pandemic, the center has been renovated to provide even better services for Grove City’s older population when it reopens.

locations such as the historic farmhouse at Gantz Park and City Hall before settling in its current home at the Kingston Center in 2016.

The department has grown and enhanced its programming.

“When the Big Splash opened (in 1999), we were able to grow that program and that’s become a much bigger summertime program,” Conrad says.

The department has its finger on the pulse of what attracts visitors and residents. Department staff constantly assess new and existing programs to determine if one needs to be added, replaced or removed altogether.

In the early years, for instance, Conrad says the department used to offer an arts academy but shelved it years ago. The department could always bring it back at a later time, she adds.

“We tried to look at what the national trends are,” Conrad says. “A great example is that back in the mid2000s, skate parks were all the rage. And so, we ended up building a skate park back in 2007 and we offered skating lessons or skateboarding lessons for quite a while. … There’s still a lot of interest in those facilities.”

The department’s analysis of recreational trends along with community input led it to add pickleball courts, giving community members of all ages the space to play the sport. You can read more about Grove City’s pickleball enthusiasm in the March/April 2021 issue or online at www.discovergrovecity.com.

Aside from new sports, parks and recreation helped boost a longtime recreational activity in Grove City: Youth baseball has a long history in the community, well before a parks department was founded. Grove City’s affiliation with Little League launched in 1950 with hundreds of youth participating over the years. Although the city owned and maintained Windsor Park, home of the youth baseball diamonds, the department did not take over the

Park and Recreation youth baseball program until 1998. By that time, the affiliation with Little League had lapsed. In 2013, Grove City again

Month Activities established a connection with Little League, Sutherland says. The department has several projects on deck including

In July, the Grove City Parks and Recreation Depart- development of the 30-acre green space reserved for a park in ment will offer the following activities: • 31 miles: Learn the Grove City Trail System by the Beulah Park development, the space in the Town Center formerly occupied by the Grove City Library, and development of the 34-acre Pinnacle Area Park located near the inspending the month of July biking, hiking, running or tersection of Holton and Hoover roads including trails, a play walking 31 miles in 31 days. The city will highlight its area and shelters. No matter what style of recreation you love, park trails via Facebook and its website. Grove City Parks and Recreation has something for you – or • Pop-up park visits will very soon. “We’ve got a lot on the horizon,” Conrad says.

Details are being finalized. For more information, visit www.GroveCityOhio.gov.

Garden Sprouts’ Children’s Garden at Gantz Farm.