Water park progress slow

Progress on some of the finishing touches for Portland Water Park has been slow.
Street and parks superintendent Ryan Myers told Portland Park Board the work on Portland Water Park is continuing, but has been slow because contractors have not been coming out regularly to finish their work.
Myers said American Electric Power (AEP) was supposed to run an underground power line to the park, which is currently a generator for electricity, but that has not yet been done.
“They’ve had their check for almost three weeks now,” said board member Donald Gillespie.
Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman said it’s been at least a month since the company has been paid and that he has contacted AEP several times.
Myers said installing the permanent fence is moving slowly as well. He noted the poles for the fence have been installed but RL Turner, the construction company for the water park, informed Myers it is having problems with the subcontractor showing up to finish the job.
“They are moving forward on that but it seems to be very slow,” said Myers. “There is progress and they’re working at it every day.”
The board also elected Rod Ashman as its president, Shauna Runkle as vice president and Chris Compton as secretary, positions they held in 2015.
In other business, Kristi Betts, Runkle, Ashman, Gillespie and Compton:
•Learned from Runkle the board from will purchase the 30 sling-lounge and 10 straight-back chairs for the pool with funds that were encumbered in December.
•Extended the pool manager application and junior park board deadline to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 1. Applications should be sent to Portland City Hall, 321 N. Meridian St.
•Heard from Gillespie the board has to create timelines to complete park inventories. Each member, except Ashman, was assigned a park to collect inventory on what the board has or needs to be added. He said it would be best to start when the weather gets warmer.
Theresa Inman, vice president of Jay County Trails Club, offered the park board help with collecting information for trails in the park inventory. Gillespie said some of the trails the club wants to take into account do not belong to the city, but noted the board wants to help with the club’s trail plan. He also asked for Inman and club president Samantha Thomas to give him contact information to provide more detail on the club’s planned projects.
Currently the club wants a trail paved from the bridge between Hudson Family Park and Weiler-Wilson Park to the east along the north side of the Salamonie River toward East Elementary School and then north to Jay County Fairgrounds.
•Learned from Geesaman that they need to update their park plan, which will expire at the end of the year, so it will be eligible for grants.