Parking Lot or Duck Pond?

When it rains, the new handicap parking area at looks more suitable for paddling ducks than a place to park cars.

The township is now struggling with its new handicap accessible parking lot built near the basketball courts on the lower level of the park where water naturally drains into the area.

said they plan to install French drains around the lot and possibly add more stones or gravel to alleviate the water problem. Fitzgerald said the pad was installed correctly, but it is in a troublesome place due to the topography.

She said the township only recently installed the handicap parking after the state demanded it be in place after the township used a grant to upgrade the basketball courts. The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant mandated there be ADA compliant parking.

“We had to put it over on that side (away from the other parking),” Fitzgerald said. “That whole area is a pit of water. We know that, and know there is water there. We are trying to find ways to get it solved.”

But the problems irk Scott Commissioner Bill Wells, who thinks the township should have made sure there wouldn’t be a drainage problem before installing the pad.

“I don’t think anything will fix it. It’s lower than the ground, other than moving the dirt around it won’t be better,” Wells said. “It just irritates me that they hurried up and did it wrong.”

He estimates the township spent $2,675 on the parking pad, and will now have to spend more to fix it. He said it’s disappointing to drive by the small parking lot that is usually “unusable” by residents.

“You would think there could be a better place to put two handicap spots,” Wells said. “It just bothers me the way they did it. Now we have to fix it.”

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