By VICKI URBANIK

The Porter County Park Board agreed Thursday to make an offer to purchase approximately 67 acres on the west side of Meridian Road in Liberty Township.

Known as the Michaels property, the parcel is bounded on the south by the CSX railroad tracks, on the west by C.R. 50W and on the east by Meridian Road. The purchase price is $889,000.

The property is expected to be purchased over a three-year period, with the first 18 acres acquired this year. That part of the property includes a house, a maintenance building and a pond, said Porter County Park Superintendent Ed Melendez.

Next year, the plans call for a 27-acre portion on the property’s western end to be acquired, with the remaining property acquired in 2010.

The park board, which has been holding ongoing executive sessions to discuss land acquisition, unanimously agreed to accept the offer to purchase the property at Thursday’s meeting, held at Sunset Hill Farm County Park.

The acquisition would represent a significant addition to the county parks department. In addition to the 235-acre Sunset Hill Farm, other county park sites are the 22-acre Brincka-Cross garden park acquired last year in Furnessville, the 65-acre West Farm in Pine Township and the small Dunn’s Bridge park on the banks of the Kankakee River. The county park department also has maintenance responsibility for the Calumet Bike Trail. In addition, plans are in the works for a county park on the former County Home parcel.

Melendez said the plans for the new park are expected to include fishing access, as well as walking and biking connections with nearby subdivisions. He also said the property offers the potential for the county park department to partner with other entities, citing the possibility for ball fields for use by the Duneland and Valparaiso schools.

Melendez said the appraisal process has been completed and that a closing is expected in about 45 days.

The county park board will pay for the purchase mainly through its County Economic Development Income Tax funds, though it did receive a $100,000 federal grant through the Lake Michigan Coastal grant program toward the acquisition.

Speaking from the audience, Herb Read, who for years has advocated that the park board acquire more park lands, said that when the acquisition is finalized, he will “stand up and cheer.”

Also Thursday, Melendez introduced Paula Ramos as the newly hired director of the Brincka-Gross House & Gardens park. Ramos, the former director of the county’s Old Jail Museum, was hired with the parks department on a part-time basis about two months ago and recently assumed one of the full-time positions created this year.

“Her enthusiasm ... is hard to keep up with,” Melendez said.

Ramos gave a report on the various building and maintenance projects underway at the Brincka-Cross property. Commenting on the uniqueness of the property, Ramos said she has seen houses similar to the one at Brincka-Cross on the north side of Chicago, but never in Indiana. Eventually, she said, the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired house will pay for itself as a meeting place for groups and weddings. Ramos also said plans are underway for an initial public opening of the park this fall.

Posted 5/2/2008