Board OKs purchase

President Donald Trump delivered his annual State of the Union address to Congress for about an hour Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, Matt Shauver, a representative of Portland Parks Department, delivered his monthly address to Portland Park Board at its meeting for about three minutes.

In his defense, it’s winter. There’s not a lot going on in parks.

“It’s February. I really don’t have anything for you,” Shauver told the board.

His only item of discussion was to present bids for two new 60-inch mowers to be used for parks and Runkle-Miller Field.

The bid was awarded by the board to Hull Brothers, Fort Recovery, which agreed to sell two Grasshopper mowers for $7,500, the less expensive bid by about $5,000.

Previously, Portland had used two Country Clipper mowers, but Shauver was excited to try out the Grasshopper.

“They look good,” Shauver said.

If Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction Sunday of an early spring comes true, those mowers could be put to use soon.

The mower purchase was the only item of business for the meeting, which spanned about four minutes, other than the ratification of the previous meeting’s minutes by board members Chris Compton, Giles Laux, Brian Ison and Shauna Runkle.

On Monday, Jay County Trails Club treasurer John Moore gave an address of his own, for about six minutes, to Portland City Council about the programs offered by Portland’s parks.

In total, Moore estimated there were about 2,000 to 3,000 participants involved in Portland park programs since the city’s five-year parks master plan was put in place in 2017.

The more popular programs were put on by Arts Place, which has about 365 participants for Arts in the Parks alone.

Hundreds also came out for baseball, softball, football, pickleball, shuffleboard, swimming and other sports hosted at city parks.

In total, these programs are put on by about 400 volunteers, Moore estimated.

“The quality of parks you have here in Portland is just amazing,” Moore said. “It’s a wonderful community resource.”