By Deb Fall
Darke County Parks
Most of us want our property value to increase with time. It’s usually the largest purchase in our lifetime and is used to determine our net worth.
What increases your property value? There are many things that increase your home’s value. One is updating and maintenance, a well-kept property. Another is well kept public spaces. Your community has the ability to keep areas desirable by maintaining green spaces.
One of the first places a buyer, transferring to a new area, investigates is the parks and the schools. When the parks are maintained and supported by the community it shows the effort the community puts into itself. Newer playground equipment, clean park restrooms and freshly painted buildings say a lot about a village/city.
Every year the Darke County Park District offers a grant to the villages of Darke County and the City of Greenville. The Community Parks Improvement Program gives each community a chance to update, repair and improve their parks. Many villages use the chance to do just that. Your village representative is working for you, to keep your property values increasing by updating and improving your parks. Our reimbursable grant application is available each spring and pays out in the fall of the same year.
If you are from North Star, the village park added a truck and bulldozer spring rider and a standing arch seesaw in 2023. Sounds like a great place to take my grandchildren! The village of New Weston installed new fencing around the park to ensure the safety of its children. A new playground gym set was applied for and granted to the Village of Wayne Lakes. Castine’s Mayor applied to refurbish its park shelter. Stop in and have your lunch in Castine ! As you see it’s not just park equipment, we have granted a diving board to the Versailles pool, bleachers to several communities and hundreds of yards of playground mulch,etc. Most of the lighting through the Greenville City Park was paid for through our grant program.
This grant focuses on health and safety in your community. The grant committee is made up of 6 county volunteers who visit the park of every applicant. I am so grateful to have these volunteers. They unselfishly give up their free time for the Community Parks Improvement Grant Program.
Maintained greenspaces in your community and your property’s value are definitely tied together. In fact, living close to a park increases your property value between 8%-20%. No matter where you are in Darke County there is a park available to you. So, get out there this summer and walk a trail, go down a slide or have a picnic at your favorite park and remember that parks are a fundamental asset to your community.
