City purchases land for park

The Bloomington City Council unanimously approved the $136,600 purchase of the the defunct Cascades Motorcycle Shot Wednesday.\nThe site, adjacent to Cascades Park, located at 2404 N. Old SR 37, about an acre in size, had been targeted for acquisition for decades, and it "will more than likely be passive greenspace," said Dave Williams, director of operations and development for the Parks and Recreation Department.\n"This is something we have been working on for a long, long, long time, and it's very nice we can do it now," said Councilman Tim Mayer.\nAfter years of negotiation regarding the sale of the property, the owner finally listed it for sale in late 2005 and accepted the city's offer of purchase for $125,000, a price significantly lower than listed.\nAn additional $11,600 will be spent on miscellaneous closing costs and consultants associated with the land purchase.\nThe site has, since 1960, been used as an automobile-related business and consequently has not passed guidelines set forth by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Environmental assessments have found high levels of heavy metals in the ground, spurring the city to conduct an environmental remediation of the area to fix the damage.\nIf the city is satisfied with the environmental evaluations, further money will have to be appropriated for demolition, environmental cleanup and improvements.\n"This is a key acquisition," said Councilman Dave Rollo. "And the environmental work will be key to the health of the park and the city."\nOutgoing Councilman Jason Banach agreed.\n"I couldn't be prouder to support this as one of my last official acts," Banach said.\nThe entire $136,600 was appropriated from the Parks Land Acquisition Fund, established in 1990 for the purpose of acquiring land for city parks.\nThe fund is currently at $888,688.