Advertisement Hamilton Twp. considers controversial sale of one of its parks Bids accepted Sept. 30 Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Residents and trustees in Hamilton Township are not seeing eye to eye about putting one of the township's parks up for sale.People who live near Mounts Park, like Lisa Wilson, are nervous about what is going to happen to the land.“I raised my children there, my grandchildren there, a very strong sense of a community being woven together,” Wilson said.Watch this storyWilson said she wants to know if it is going to be sold and if so, who it is going to be sold to.“We don’t have that many parks in Hamilton township and we really need to hang on to the ones that we have so that in the future our community doesn’t just have a shell of a community,” Wilson said.The township currently has three major parks for residents.Kurt Weber has been a Hamilton Township Trustee for six years. He said the opportunity to sell the property came out of the blue.“These investors approached us and said they would be interested in buying the property. We had no intention of selling it, that wasn't even on our radar or vision,” Weber said.Weber said the township acquired the space for about $90,000 years ago.“It has been maintained, to mainly do some fishing on the weekends and before my time as a trustee there was a master plan,” Weber said. “ We have set a minimum bid amount for $500,000. That was based on some information that we received that would be a good place to start.”Wilson says the numbers don't add up.“Even that $500,000 doesn't seem like a good option. It appraises at over $1 million. It seems like somebody is getting a really great deal,” Wilson said.Weber says putting the space up for bid was based on transparency.“We felt like since they were interested in it, we felt like, No. 1, we should be transparent and put it out there in hopes that number one people would know about it. No. 2, if there was anyone else interested, they would have the opportunity to bid on it,” Weber said.Wilson doesn't agree.“Selling it to somebody who is going to develop it and charge the residents to use it is like putting a toll on the bike trail,” Wilson said. “I just don’t feel like it was as transparent as we hope that our government will be. “Weber stressed the trustees have not made a decision whether to sell the property or not. He said the bidding time will be used to hear from the public to get to a final decision.The bidding for the property will begin at 1 p.m. on Sept. 30.