Staying with the story
The Springfield News-Sun updates it’s readers on important changes to the community. We’ve been following the transformation of the city’s former Snyder Park Golf Course since its closure was announced in early 2014.
The Clark County Ohio State University Extension Office and Master Gardeners released their master plan for the new gardens at the former Snyder Park Golf Course.
The plan includes several elements stretched over 25 acres of land, including a labyrinth, observation tower and several plant testing sites, said OSU Extension Director Pam Bennett.
“I’m just excited to get started on it,” Bennett said.
The first phase of the transformation will cost about $250,000 and focus on building infrastructure, such as pathways for accessibility and excavating the course’s current tee boxes and greens, she added.
The new garden will take up about a third of the old golf course. Organizers started working with a landscape architect last fall on the new design to turn the golf course into a public garden.
“When you’re designing with a lot of people there’s always so many great ideas, and I think a lot of those great ideas were implemented in this plan,” Bennett said.
The gardens will also include an area maintained by the Hollandia Gardens Association, and National Trail Parks and Recreation District will incorporate natural prairie land and wetlands into the area.
The OSU Extension Office and Master Gardeners will collect money to cover the first phase of the project, Bennett added.
“It’s going to take a lot of people, it’s going to take a lot of time and it’s going to take a lot of money,” she said.
The former Snyder Park Golf Course was closed by the NTPRD in January of 2014 due to budget issues.
It was a controversial move and many in the area were sad to see a historic course shut its doors for good, said Vince Hannon, of Springfield. He played his first-ever round of golf at Snyder Park in 1962.
“It’s a Springfield landmark, and we’re losing so many of them, as I’ve watched over the years, and it’s just one more landmark that we’re losing,” Hannon said.
But many are happy to hear that local groups are teaming together to re-purpose the land.
“I’ve enjoyed the golf course myself and I was sad to see it go, but I would rather see the flowers than let it grow up in weeds,” said Ronda Fenwick, of Springfield, who was visiting the trial gardens by the Snyder Park clubhouse with her granddaughter Monday.
The design of the course will also include memorials to the land’s golf course past, Bennett said.
“We want to be sensitive to the fact that it was a golf course for many years,” she said.
The Master Gardeners began removing some of the former golf course area, including tee boxes and greens, for the garden. It is also removing trees, including many infected with the emerald ash borer, Bennett said.
More work, including planting turf gardens, will begin in the fall, she added.
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