25 years after the county bought farm land in Granger for a park, the St. Joseph County Council voted Tuesday night to finally build a park there.
The council voted 6-3 to let the parks board borrow about $6 million in bonds and repay them with an existing property tax levy. The parks board will use nearly $5 million of that to develop a new park on Anderson Road east of Beech Road. Another $1 million will pay for some long-deferred projects at other county parks.
Republicans Joe Thomas, Randy Figg and Andy Rutten voted against the bond issue, saying the county should be more careful with spending after the Indiana General Assembly’s recent property tax cuts.
But Steve Slauson, executive director of the county parks, said there will never be a perfect time to develop the park.
“There’s always going to be something that’s out there that’s going to say well now is not the right time," Slauson said. "I think the longer we postpone this or push this down the road, the more it’s going to cost the county some day when we finally do develop it.”
Republican council member Amy Drake said she’d rather see the whole $6 million spent to improve existing parks, but she ended up voting for the bond issue.
“I would have liked to see the money used differently but I also don’t want to deny the people in my district, even my own family, the opportunity to use that park," Drake said.
