GREENFIELD — The Greenfield Board of Works gave the city final approval this week to purchase nearly 20 acres of land just west of town to be used as the site of a future water treatment plant.
The undeveloped parcel of land sits immediately east of the Community Foundation of Hancock County office, at 971 West U.S. 40.
The board unanimously approved the purchase at its April 25 meeting, giving Mayor Chuck Fewell the green light to sign off on the purchase of the 19.8-acre plot of land from the Indiana Bandits and Greenfield Youth Baseball Association (GYBA) for a sum of $736,750.
City attorney Gregg Morelock said the city is scheduled to close on the sale May 11.
The GYBA and Indiana Bandits, a youth travel baseball team, were jointly gifted the parcel of land about six years ago through the Wehl Foundation, which was started by the late Greenfield native William Wehl.
After much consideration, the organizations opted to sell the property to the city and use the proceeds to support it’s baseball park located behind Greenfield Central Junior High School, which it developed after entering into a 50-year agreement to lease the property from the city seven years ago.
“It’s going to be a great thing for the city and a great thing for our organizations, in that we’re going to be able to make a big step toward finishing the park,” said GYBA president Mike Hubert.
Hubert said proceeds from the sale will go towards paying off a loan acquired to develop the ballpark, with enough left over to fund ongoing enhancements like paving the parking lot and walking paths, controlling weeds under the bleachers and building a couple more fields.
City officials were also happy with the property acquisition, which will be used to create a water treatment plant to serve the city’s growing population.
City attorney Gregg Morelock said an existing plant on U.S. 40, just west of Riley Park, will be obsolete within the next five to eight years. Since the aging facility is landlocked, officials have been saying for months that a larger facility will need to be built somewhere else.
The city’s water utility manager, Charles Gill, said the department will move quickly to utilize the new property along U.S. 40 once it’s acquired.
“One of the first things we need to do when this is in our hands will be the water testing. We’re going to go for test drilling and production wells and pilot testing for the design of the new treatment plant. Things will move efficiently. … It’s not just going to sit there blank for very long,” Gill shared at Tuesday’s Board of Works meeting.
“Once we get the new treatment plant constructed and all the puzzle pieces into place … the new plant will be ready to go online and we’ll phase the old one out,” he said.
Morelock said the newly aquired land will be a welcome addition to the city, which has been racing to keep up with demand as the city continues to grow. He said the property should be easy to annex once it’s owned by the city.
Fewell said the city is already in negotiations with Duke Energy to take over providing service to the area.
As for GYBA and the Indiana Bandits, the organizations plans to pay off their loan and move forward with ongoing enhancements to their 27-acre park soon after the sale is done.
“We like to develop things as we get the funds to do it, and this just speeds up that process tremendously,” said Hubert, whose baseball league serves between 500 and 600 youth each year.
“We’re a growing organization and we need more fields and facilities, and so this is going to help us a lot.”
