MOUNT VERNON — A parks and recreation project two decades in the making is inching toward the finish line.
The Blackjack Road wetlands project has been a goal since Mount Vernon purchased the 53-acre parcel in 2004.
The city bought the wetlands on Industrial Drive using Clean Ohio funds. It placed the land under the care of the Owl Creek Conservancy.
In 2024, the municipal planning commission approved Highland Real Estate’s request to realign a walking path in the Liberty Crossing subdivision to connect with Owl Creek Conservancy’s path.
The city received a $185,000 NRAC (Natural Resources Assistance Council) grant to create a walking trail and build two boardwalk crossings in the nature preserve.
“We’re going to try to minimize our impact to the wetlands throughout this project,” Assistant City Engineer Quentin Platt said.
Plans are to turn a clearing in the northeast section into a native prairie.
“So as you’re walking through the woods, eventually you (see) this beautiful view of this native prairie,” Platt said. “That would include some invasive removals and then establishing that prairie with native flowers and native grasses.”
Restoring Delano Run
The project also includes a stream restoration project along Delano Run.
According to Platt, most of the streams in the county were channelized; what we see now is not the stream’s natural state or flow.
“In that area, we identified that there was an oxbow, or a bend, in the stream. When they utilized it, they kind of pushed the material up there and blocked the water from flowing that direction,” Platt explained.
“So all we’re really going to do is remove some of that material and restore that connection to the floodplain of Delano Run into that area.”
Platt said a visiting naturalist found fairy shrimp in the area. Fairy shrimp live in freshwater and only in vernal pools. Vernal pools are seasonal, shallow depressions in the landscape that fill with water during the wetter months.
Platt said the path from the parking lot to the edge of the park will likely be crushed limestone, mulched, or possibly include a sidewalk. However, neither it nor the wetlands trail will be ADA accessible.
To make it accessible, Platt said workers would have to introduce limestone, which is not natural to the environment.
City Engineer Brian Ball recommended partnering with a specialized wheelchair or accessibility company if council members want to make it ADA accessible. However, he noted the city has many restrictions on what it can do in the wetlands.
The NRAC money is available on July 1. Council members gave a second reading to legislation on Monday, authorizing the administration to bid and award a construction contract.
