Donations for a new park

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Muskingum Valley Park Society is asking the community to help save the former Westview Elementary School property.

The school building was demolished in December of 2016 and now the park society is raising money to develop the property into a community park. Park Society President and Zanesville City Council fifth ward, Steve Foreman said Zanesville City schools gave the Muskingum Valley Park District the first offer to owning the property.

“The park district has decided to turn that into a park for the residents,” Foreman said. “I know as being the principal there for ten years that it always was a park. It just happened to have a school that sat on it because, when the day was over it was all kids and their families that would come and use that. So we’re really trying to embrace the community and bring them back into this.”

The Muskingum Valley Park District has also applied for a $450,000 ‘Clean Ohio Fund’ for the Westview property development. Foreman explained the park society started taking donations for the development.

“We have to show matching funds for a portion of that grant in the amount of $112,500,” Foreman said. “So we’ve already earmarked $60,000 that we have for this. So the $750 we raised on our GoFundMe account is all going to go toward that in addition to the $60,000 to hopefully reach that $112,500 that we need.”

The Muskingum Valley Park Society supports the Muskingum Valley Park District. To donate to the park development check out the Westview Community Park GoFundMe Page.