Explanation
Background:
This ordinance authorizes the Director of Recreation and Parks to accept a grant and enter into an agreement with the Ohio Attorney General. This grant will fund efforts to clean up the significant illegal dumping at Island View Nature Preserve. The $95,503.70 grant will support clean-up services as well as signage to prevent future illegal dumping at the site.
Island View is a 10.25-acre nature preserve located in the Clintonville community. A property owner whose property sits adjacent to Island View has been encroaching upon City parkland with significant illegal dumping for several decades. Contents at Island View from this property owner include two abandoned cars, three boats, a car frame, a motorcycle, a partial camper, wooden pallets, tarps, tiller, metal carts, rusted metal parts, tractor parts, trailers, bricks, and other trash and debris. CRPD has been in contact with the property owner since 2007 and has issued several written notices of encroachments but has thus far been unsuccessful in having the property owner remove the dumped items.
Island View was designated as a nature preserve in 2024, serving as an environmental oasis within an urban community. The current trash and debris is significant and poses risk to the environment and nature preserve patrons. Partnering with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office will allow CRPD to clean up this vital nature preserve.
Principal Parties:
The Ohio Attorney General
30 E Broad St, 14th Floor
Columbus, OH. 43215
Hannah Smith-Welsh, Paralegal II- Environmental Enforcement Section
614-466-2766
Area(s) Affected: Clintonville community surrounding Island View Nature Preserve (403 Westview Ave Columbus, OH 43214), and any other City of Columbus park patrons.
Master Plan Relation: Clean up of Island View Nature Preserve is in line with CRPD’s goals of fostering a culture of belonging across parks and facilities, promoting safe parks and facilities, and fostering community stewardship and environmental education in city parks and nature preserves.
Benefits to the Public: Removal of the significant dumping at Island View will improve the environmental health and safety of both the nature preserve and all nature preserve patrons.
Fiscal Impact: This ordinance authorizes an acceptance of the $95,503.70 grant award and the appropriation of those funds from the Ohio Attorney General to the Recreation and Parks Grant Fund 2283.
Title
To authorize and direct the Director of Recreation and Parks to accept a grant in the amount of $95,503.70 and enter into an agreement with the Ohio Attorney General to provide illegal dumping clean-up services and educational signate at Island View Nature Preserve; to appropriate to $95,503.70 the Recreation and Parks Grant Fund. ($95,503.70)
Body
WHEREAS, the Ohio Attorney General has awarded the City of Columbus, Recreation and Parks Department, a grant to provide illegal dumping clean-up services and educational signate at Island View Nature Preserve; and
WHEREAS, it is necessary to authorize and direct the Director of Recreation and Parks Department to accept the grant and enter into a grant agreement with the Ohio Attorney General; and
WHEREAS, it is necessary to appropriate $95,503.70 to the Recreation and Parks Grant Fund; and NOW, THEREFORE
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
SECTION 1. That the Director of Recreation and Parks be and is hereby authorized to accept a grant in the amount of $95,503.70 to provide illegal dumping clean-up services and educational signate at Island View Nature Preserve and to enter into an agreement with the Ohio Attorney General.
SECTION 2. That from the unappropriated monies in the Recreation and Parks Grant Fund and from all monies estimated to come into said fund from any and all sources and unappropriated, upon receipt of an executed agreement, for any other purpose during the fiscal year ending December 31, 2026, the sum of $95,503.70 to the Recreation and Parks Department per the accounting codes in the attachment to this ordinance.
SECTION 3. That the monies in the foregoing Section 2 shall be paid upon order of the Director of Recreation and Parks, and that no order shall be drawn or money paid except by voucher, the form of which shall be approved by the City Auditor.
SECTION 4. That, at the end of the grant period, any repayment of unencumbered balances required by the grantor is hereby authorized and any unused City match monies may be transferred back to the City fund from which they originated in accordance with all applicable grant agreements.
SECTION 5. That the funds necessary to carry out the purpose of this ordinance are hereby deemed appropriated, and the City Auditor shall establish such accounting codes as necessary.
SECTION 6. That this ordinance shall take effect and be in force from and after the earliest period allowed by law.