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Construction Updates
Nature Realm | Towpath Trail | Green Building
Updated December 17, 2008. For more information, call 330-867-5511.
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F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm
The visitors center closed December 1, 2008, and there will be times in the coming year when the grounds and parking lot are also closed. The reopening is tentatively scheduled for December 2009.
During the closure, an information post is set up at the pavilion in Goodyear Heights Metro Park. There, visitors can get information, talk to a naturalist and pick up maps and publications. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Back at the Nature Realm, improvements to the interior of the underground building will be made to accommodate new displays. Outside, plans call for resurfacing the parking lot, constructing a new wheelchair-accessible walkway from the lot to the building, and adding a fireplace and deck on the back of the building for programs and wildlife watching.
The new exhibits will be created by Split Rock Studios, a museum company based in Minnesota, with a theme of "Nature is Good for You."
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Towpath Trail: Various sections
The Cascade Locks Phase II section is open, leading from the Mustill Store to downtown Akron (pictured at right). Work on the section from Summit Lake to Waterloo Road will be completed in 2009. From Manchester Road to US 224 the trail is essentially complete. The area has been seeded and mulched. Railings are going in next, and plants will be installed in spring 2009. The PPG stretch between Vanderhoof and Eastern roads was completed in August.
Currently, the park district manages 18 miles of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail. When construction is complete, that number will increase to 23 miles.
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Green Building
Metro Parks is done renovating and adding on to an existing building in Sand Run Metro Park. It's a former private residence on Sand Run Parkway that the park district acquired as a life estate in 2003.
The green building includes geothermal heating, waterless toilets, solar panels, a green roof, lumber from downed trees in the Metro Parks, and recycled carpet, furniture and cabinetry. Outside, the features include porous pavement, a rain garden, rain barrels and native landscaping. Some of the original building materials were "recycled" by Habitat for Humanity. MORE
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Lock 28
Deep Lock Quarry contains Lock 28, which at 17 feet was the deepest lock on the Ohio & Erie Canal.
The Olmsted Brothers
Celebrated landscape architects John C. and Frederick (Jr.) Olmsted created the first countywide master plan for Metro Parks in 1925.
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