Parks Board says no to land deal for group homes

ast year, the Nevada Parks Board told the city council that they did not want to get rid on either Hester or Postlethwaite parks. Tuesday night, the parks board said their view had not changed when they voted unanimously to not sell or give away any of Marmaduke Park for a group home development.

"About a year ago the city council asked us to inventory the park property. The board at that time looked at Hester Park and Postlethwaite Park and felt that park land is at such a premium they hated to give any up," said parks board member Jeff Post.

"Now they are asking for some of our biggest park. It's right in the middle of our park," Post said.

"I'd like the for the council to know that we are not against economic development or the group homes -- it's just that we don't approve giving up park land," he said.

"This has nothing to do with group homes," Gina Cripps, parks board vice chairman, said.

Dave Christensen said that since he has children when he moved here a couple of years one of things he was interested in was the city's parks.

This issue started in July 2006 when Jhan Hurn, Community Support Services, Joplin, approached the city council about building five group homes in Nevada for severely developmentally disabled individuals. On April 1, he again visited the city council and told them that he wanted to locate the group homes on a 7.6-acre site in Marmaduke Park. The proposed Intermediate Care Facility for the Mentally Retarded would house 30 persons and employ about 76 people, with a annual budget of $3.75 million. The city council told Hurn that he needed to present his request to the parks board for their recommendation before the council made a final decision.

"We're not making a statement against the project. We just want to protect the park land," Shirley Ann Bastow said.