RISON - Cleveland County Judge Jimmy Cummings said Monday night that the county will close Woodlawn Community Park next month if a lease agreement or change of ownership of the park property is not made before then.
Cummings made the remark to the Cleveland County Quorum Court during its regular monthly meeting Monday night.
In an interview Tuesday morning, Cummings said he had been contacted by someone with a group overseeing the park since the meeting, and he is hopeful the issue will be resolved.
Cummings told the court that he preferred to see the park remain open under leadership from that community.
Ownership and jurisdiction of the 38-acre facility was brought into question last April when a request by a board overseeing the park asked the county for money to replace the air conditioning units at the Woodlawn Community Center. In addition to the community, the park also includes youth baseball and softball fields.
The park's request last spring raised some questions from then County Judge Melody Spears and members of the quorum court as to why the county would need to pay for the units since it did not own the property? It turned out that the county does own the park.
Larry Reynolds of the Woodlawn area, who was one of the original county-appointed committee members to oversee the formation of the park, told the quorum court that the land was originally bought by a local group in 1977, but ownership of the property was turned over to the county to make it easier to secure grants. Subsequent research verified that ownership of the property was turned over to the county.
In October, a group representing the Woodlawn Community Park addressed the quorum court during its monthly meeting. During that meeting, the county offered to lease the park to the group for 99 years at a cost of $1 per year. The group requested more time to give an answer.
The county has not heard a response fro...
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