Working Together to Protect Radnor Lake

On March 18th, the City of Oak Hill Commissioners voted to fund Friends of Radnor Lake’s acquisition of 10 acres of land owned by Civic Bank. This vote by the City of Oak Hill ends a long journey by Friends of Radnor Lake to purchase this property along our northwest boundary and at the same time, marks the start of new opportunities. Four years ago, this property was bought and scheduled for development, removing any hope of adding this acreage to the natural area. It was lost, or so we thought. In a long turn of events including the sluggish economic times, this property went into bankruptcy in the fall of 2009.

Since that time, Friends of Radnor Lake, along with the support of several of our adjoining neighbors, has been working diligently to add this property to the natural area. During that process, Friends of Radnor Lake also acquired an additional 1-acre tract in December 2009 thanks to the generosity of adjoining neighbor, Galen Foster along Stonewall Jackson Court.

Beginning in January, Friends Board Member Paul Buchanan and Friends President Charley Hankla presented a proposal to the City of Oak Hill requesting funding assistance to secure the 10-acre tract owned by Civic Bank. After two months of consideration, the Board of Commissioners voted to fund the project at a cost of $750,000. The significance of this assistance from the City of Oak Hill is three fold:

1. It protects a tract of land that has been on Radnor Lake’s land acquisition priority list for over 20 years.
2. It allows Friends of Radnor Lake to focus on acquiring more land within Oak Hill that is currently on our priority list.
3. Funds used to purchase this 10-acre tract can be used as matching funds for upcoming federal grants, parlaying the initial purchase into additional funding for land.

Along with our partners at The Land Trust for Tennessee, Friends of Radnor Lake is in the process of finalizing the details of protecting this tract of land forever!

There are several people I would like to thank for their assistance with this project:

• All of our neighbors on Granny White Trace and Stonewall Jackson for their overwhelming support throughout this process.
• Stonewall Jackson neighbors Sharon and Dennis Monroe
• Friends of Radnor Lake Land Acquisition Committee (Jeff, Ann, Charley and Paul)
• Friends of Radnor Lake Board Member Paul Buchanan for countless hours of time on this project.
• Jeanie Nelson, Julian Bibb, Miranda Christy and The Land Trust of Tennnessee
• The City of Oak Hill staff, Mayor Tommy Alsup, Vice Mayor Austin McMullen and Commissioner Ray Throckmorton. Without their vote to financially support the largest piece of this project, it simply would have not been possible….thank you!

See you on the trail! Park Manager Steve Ward