Cleveland Airport Authority Chairwoman Lynn DeVaultCLEVELAND, Tenn. -- Would the city of Cleveland be interested in accepting a new wetland as a city park?
The Cleveland Municipal Airport Authority wants to know.
As part of its preparation for a new airport on Dry Valley Road in the Tasso community, the city's airport authority had to create a state and federally accepted wetland elsewhere to replace a wetland at the construction site.
The airport authority purchased 22 acres on the former Rolling Hills Golf Course on Candies Lane. When that $400,000 project is completed, it will be a wetland park with a walking trail.
And since the city's Parks and Recreation Department will be maintaining it, Airport Authority Chairwoman Lynn DeVault is asking if the city would be interested in accepting the park as part of the debt the airport authority owes the city for airport construction.
"It will be a nice urban park with a walking trail, something nice for the community," DeVault said.
The questions to be answered, however, are whether the city can own the park instead of the airport authority, and how the transfer could be made in compliance with state and federal regulations that came with the grant money.
"It is doable, state or federal," said Gloria Malone with the city's Public Works department.
City Manager Janice Casteel said "it would make sense for it to belong to the city."