Want to help save Osage Grove?

[sisyphus]

Maybe news to the DGCR community, but another gem of a course is in peril due to political shenanigans. Put simply, One of Cincinnati's 'Big Four' courses, Osage Grove, in Goshen, Ohio, is at risk of being closed. In a nutshell, the state requires them to put in a bathroom, but the powers that be refused to allow a levy to go on the ballot. The people aren't going to be given a chance to vote for (or against) their park.

The politicians don't seem to care about the years of work done by volunteers at the park, much less the labor put into the DG course by Adam, Drew, Kurt, and dozens of others (Heck, there have been at least three or four new tees added this summer!) But we have an opportunity to do something about this one. We need to help the GoFundMe campaign, which will let the park (and the course) survive. My suggestion is to dig out those discs you don't use, make a concerted effort to sell a few this week, and consider dropping half, all (or double!?) the profit into the fund. Not a lot of sweat off our brows (doesn't take a lot from any one of us), but if a couple hundred folks on here would do this, it could be a substantial push to show the politicians who controls things.

...Who's with me?

 

[CrowLegs]

Thanks for posting this Jeff! I really enjoyed that course, and want to bring a group from CBus to play it and other Cincy courses.

While I agree that restrooms make a course better, there are many courses and parks I've played without them (including the mighty Brent Hambrick right here). It seems silly to legislate the closure for that reason alone. I hope others feel the same way and help make the restroom a reality.

 

[tbird888]

Thank you for starting this thread, Jeff. Osage Grove is the best course in southwestern Ohio. If the "powers that be" would open their eyes, they would know they have a winner for Goshen Parks on their hands.

 

[brutalbrutus]

Thanks for posting this Jeff! I really enjoyed that course, and want to bring a group from CBus to play it and other Cincy courses.

While I agree that restrooms make a course better, there are many courses and parks I've played without them (including the mighty Brent Hambrick right here). It seems silly to legislate the closure for that reason alone. I hope others feel the same way and help make the restroom a reality.

From what I have heard there is a local horse riding club that is behind all this. Small town politics..:wall:

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Thanks for posting, Jeff. Closing Osage Grove would be a complete and utter shame.

Yes, just terrible. Yet another reason disc golf continues to be the Rodney Dangerfield of sports.

"It just can't get no respect."

Will donate this weekend. :hfive:


What's the timeline for the course getting pulled?
I'd think a tourney or two to raise funds to keep the course alive would be in order, no?

 

[sisyphus]

GoFundMe page currently says facilities have to be in place by the spring of 2017, so it's not imminent, just urgent, ya know?

And the club does have a tourney there September 19th. The more the merrier. Bring your appetite, too: the park volunteers are selling breakfast and lunch to raise some of the funding.

 

[sisyphus]

Thanks to everybody who's helped so far, or might do so in the future.

Just to demonstrate how easy it is to pitch in a little, I decided to promote my sale thread this past week and drop half the net proceeds on the GoFundMe campaign. It's not much, but $31.34 more to Osage Grove doesn't hurt at all, when I was able to move some plastic and raise the same amount in my PayPal for future DG expenses. Anyone can do that with no pain. If only we could motivate a few hundred of us to do the same thing, that'd be awesome! :hfive:

 

[jeffmonty]

From what I have heard there is a local horse riding club that is behind all this. Small town politics..:wall:

I've had past experience with a horse riding club when we were trying to get a new course approved, and it was the single most aggravating experience of my DG playing years. There was no limit to the lies and false propaganda those people could dream up. They didn't want to share 20 acres of a 200 acre park is what it was really about. Course never went in.

I don't know if this is a dumb idea or not, but can you raise enough funds to get a Honey Bucket out there? Would that appease the powers that be, or cover the requirements, until a more permanent solution can be achieved? Just a thought.

 

[joecoin]

So many questions. For me, the two big ones are:

The trustees have mandated permanent restrooms but won't allow a levy to be put on the ballot?

If the restroom isn't built, what will happen to the park?

 

[sisyphus]

So many questions. For me, the two big ones are:

The trustees have mandated permanent restrooms but won't allow a levy to be put on the ballot?

If the restroom isn't built, what will happen to the park?

Although I'm not totally in the loop on the details, the answer to the first question is apparently, "that's about the size of it, yep."

To the second, there is apparently an option to put in a simple latrine style bathroom that will be up to code, but not as nice as desired to fit in to the future plans for the park. If they can't afford to do that, it sounds like the trustees who won't allow a levy will get the power to decide what to do with the land. And it sounds like they have other priorities. :thmbdown:

In the meantime, the guys doing all the work out there have taken it up another notch: there are now six or seven alternate tees, multiple pin positions on practically every hole, benches, three new bridges (just this week!), and tons of other work going in. We'd love to give the club a headache handling the crowds for the local tourney on the 19th!

 

[pmorgan1214]

The park will not go away if the bathrooms are not installed. From what i have heard, if the funds are not raised the board takes over and then they can do whatever they want with the park. Per the former owner of the land, the land will always be a park. Differrence is that they will have the park become a horse park not a disc golf course.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Apparently, the trustees feel that having horse crap all over the park is more desireable than having disc golfers there. Sometimes, what people think is important. If we can't appear more desireable than horse crap, I'd say we need to improve our image. :|

 

[jeffmonty]

Apparently, the trustees feel that having horse crap all over the park is more desireable than having disc golfers there. Sometimes, what people think is important. If we can't appear more desireable than horse crap, I'd say we need to improve our image. :|

Horse people have more money, which equals more influence, than disc golf people. It's tough when you're fighting that.

 

[bballr4567]

Horse parks RUIN the actual park.

If they think having 10-15 cars parked in the park is annoying wait until you have 10-15 trucks with 20-25ft trailers come through on top of the new huge parking lot they will want to have.

 

[sjberry2017]

Horse people have more money, which equals more influence, than disc golf people. It's tough when you're fighting that.

Having grown up in a town where the horse industry is pretty dominant, I can attest this is 100% the truth

 

[brutalbrutus]

Horse parks RUIN the actual park.

If they think having 10-15 cars parked in the park is annoying wait until you have 10-15 trucks with 20-25ft trailers come through on top of the new huge parking lot they will want to have.

The current gravel lot could probably hold 5 or 6 of those...

 

[sisyphus]

Bumping up for the tourney THIS SATURDAY 9/19. :hfive:

If you're in the area, and don't yet have plans, we'd love to have a problem of too many folks showing up, having to carpool or park at the school, add temp holes, you know, the kind of 'problems' that the community will note, and say, "Wow! I didn't realize that was such a big event!"

Not sure of the final format, but we've been hoping the TD's will try the new (mostly short) tees one round and the longs the next, so folks can have the full experience. It's a non-sanctioned event, so very affordable (see GCFDA club site for details), and payouts are pretty nice. Ace fund gets really big with big numbers, and we throw off (CTP) for half if no one hits (the other half goes to the club, which really supports this course).

...& bring lunch money to buy from the park folks' cookout: proceeds go to the fundraiser.

Thanks!

 

[GMcAtee]

I'll be there Saturday. Love that the park people grill out for us! Hope to see a max capacity crowd. Especially with the GCFDA's affordable entry fees!

 

[GMcAtee]

GoFundMe page seems to be down right now. Says they need to login to their account. Remind me in the future to donate.

 

[sisyphus]

Anybody up this morning within an hour's drive of Goshen, OH, and looking for something to do for the day...signup by 9am