The deteriorated and vandalized Calumet Trail bridge over Brown Ditch may be on it way to being restored and relocated. The Porter County Parks Department, working with the county highway department and County Commissioner President John Evans is looking to transplant the covered bridge to a park where it will be saved and have it’s full potential realized.

Walter Lenckos, superintendent of the parks department, led a discussion at last night’s monthly park board meeting on the reasoning behind the project, and it’s potential benefits.

“Commissioner Evans approached me and the highway department about the bridge because quite honestly, it’s an eyesore.” Lenckos said. “The term that was used by one of my board members is it’s a vandal magnet. It really is. So we want to see if we can save it before it’s completely destroyed and put some good use to it.”

“If we are going to take the time and the money and the resources to move this thing and put it in a park, I’d like to use it for something that improves a park, and it‘s not just collecting dirt and rotting somewhere.” Lenckos said.

The parks department has two sites that they are focusing on for the location of the move. One is Sunset Hills Farm Park, an established park in Liberty Township, and the other is Brookedale County Park, a recently purchased parcel of land located at county road 900 and Meridian, which as of now is just a farm field. Lenckos favors putting the bridge at Sunset.

“I think I would prefer Sunset, I think it fits in the best there.” Lenckos said. “The color, the shape, the size, it’s similar to the rest of the barn structures that are out there. All the barn structures that we have are part of the original farm for the 40’s and 50’s, so it would look good out there I think once we cleaned it and painted it.”

The Porter County Parks Department is in the process of putting together a blueprint of what their future holds and board members unanimously approved the update for the Comprehensive Master Plan laid out at Thursday’s meeting. Lenckos explained how the process was unfolding.

“Every five years, every parks department in the state of Indiana is requested by the Department of Natural Resources to update what is called your Comprehensive Master Plan. Basically its you as an organization laying out; this is what we do, these are the resources that we have, this is our service area, this is our plan for the next several years, and this is how we are going to do it.”

“So what we have done is we have put a committee together, I’ve got twelve folks that serve on the committee and we are developing that Comprehensive Master Plan. Our draft is due to the DNR in December, and the final version is due in April. So as part of the process we go out to the community and we ask folks, what do you want to see at the parks department? What programs are you interested in? What services would you like? What do you think about the parks and do you want new parks?”

Lenckos also indicated that the committee would be hiring a consultant to help facilitate the process, who would be doing some public listening sessions, online surveys, and phone surveys to help come up with a priority list of what the public wants to see the parks department do moving forward.

The board also heard an update on the Raise the Barn project to build an activity center at Sunset Hill to create more indoor space for activities at the park.

“Currently I have one program building out at Sunset Hill Farm, that maybe you can get 30 kids in there on a rainy, stormy day.” Lenckos said. “That limit’s the programs I can do. I’ve got two picnic shelters, which are great, they have a roof and they’re nice and big, you can fit 30 to 40 kids in there, but if there’s sideways rain and it’s 50 degrees, It’s not a fun place for a sixth grader.”

With an influx of new participants this year getting involved in the parks department, Lenckos is feeling the need for the space.

“Our programs are busting at the seams.” Lenckos said. “We have people who want to participate in our programs and I don’t have the space for it.”

When asked why the parks department has seen such an increase in participation, Lenckos knew exactly why they are coming.

“There aren’t a lot of places you can take your kid for a full day of fun safe activities for the price that we offer. Here is an opportunity for a kid to play outside, get dirty, come home tired and say, oh my gosh mom, I learned a lot, I had fun today, and I need to take a nap. And we do it for really cheap.”

Posted 8/5/2011