 Printer Friendly Version
Completed Projects | Ongoing Projects | Park Improvements
A new harbor view platform awaits visitors to the beach at Fairport Harbor Lakefront Park this season. The T-shaped beach-level wooden platform extends from the parking lot toward Lake Erie. Wooden benches are available at both ends of the platform for visitors to sit and enjoy the view of the harbor.
“This platform allows seniors and others with mobility impairments to get from the parking lot down to beach where they can see the sunset and lighthouse,” said Lake Metroparks Executive Director Paul Palagyi.
The idea for the harbor view platform came from a group of Metroparks staff members that analyzed all of the agency’s programs and properties to look for ways to increase accessibility to the parks for seniors and the mobility impaired. The beach-level platform is being built by Lake Metroparks employees.
“We expect to have it done by Memorial Day,” Palagyi said.
The beach at Fairport Harbor Lakefront Park is open Memorial Day weekend and then is open for the season from June 1 through Labor Day.
In an effort to provide more opportunities to enjoy our parks, Lake Metroparks is expanding its camping opportunities to include tent camping so campers may experience unique natural features and the great outdoors. Staff created sites to highlight different natural resources, thus providing a variety of camping experiences.
These new opportunities offer a “primitive” experience for small groups of up to eight people staying in tents. Campers must hike or paddle to the campsites. The sites are set back from the developed areas of the parks from about ¼-mile to more than a mile. Each location is different, and there is only one campsite per park to provide a quiet, intimate natural experience—much different than crowded campgrounds. There is a lakeside site on Hidden Lake, a site high on the bluffs over the Grand River, a creekside site along Big Creek and two different riverside sites along the Grand River.
Reservations are required.
Click here for more information about tent camping at Lake Metroparks.
Lake Metroparks has opened to doors to the 111-acre Hidden Lake property in Leroy Township. Previously only accessible by permit, the beauty and wonder of Hidden Lake is now available to explore and fish, without reservations.
The park features nearly a mile loop trail, a nine-acre pond and a pier extending into the pond for fishing and wildlife observation.
Please note there is limited parking at this location.
Click here to see pictures of the pond at Hidden Lake being stocked.
Lake Metroparks encourages catch and release fishing, which helps to maintain fish populations and ensure many park goers the same opportunities to enjoy fishing. An Ohio fishing license is not required to fish at Hidden lake.
Click here for more information about Hidden Lake.
Big Creek at Liberty Hollow is now open! This 62-acre property features access to a nearly one mile section of Big Creek, great for for fishing and spectacular scenic views.
To make the park more accessible to visitors, Lake Metroparks developed a .25-mile natural hiking trail, installed stairways in a few hard-to-reach areas and cleared space for a five car parking lot. Please note that parking is limited and there is no street parking.
Park hours: 6 am to 1/2-hour past sunset
Eber Howe House
Built in the 1820s, it witnessed many important events along Big Creek. It housed families that managed an iron furnace, sawmill and woolen mill that once operated here. When Eber Howe was the mill owner, it became a stop on the Underground
Railroad and was locally given the name Liberty Hollow. From this site, escaped
slaves traveled north to Painesville and crossed Lake Erie to “liberty.”
Click here for more information about Big Creek at Liberty Hollow
If you have driven past Veterans Park on Hopkins Road recently, you probably have noticed a large fenced area in the woods adjacent to the parking lot. This 10 x 20-meter structure is a deer exclosure, one of seven that are monitored by Lake Metroparks throughout the county. This area was selected after so many of the mature trees were taken down by the devastating winds of Hurricane Sandy.
If you are looking for a white-tailed
deer inside the exclosure, you won’t see one. The space is designed to keep deer out to monitor the plants inside versus the plants on the outside. this will provide an index of what the impact of browse is by the white-tailed deer on that plant community.
The deer exclosure will have an important interpretive value to the public as, literally, they will see the structure from the parking lot and learn from it what impact it has on protecting the plant life within.
A small deer herd only makes a small
impact,
but too many deer consume the
seeds of a forest’s future growth. Over
time, these impacts create a visible
browse line in the forest
(see above).
 Tom Adair, Parks Services Director, in an interview on
the "Around Town" program on Mentor TV, said with the elimination of plant life, we will see a related loss or decrease in the diversity of insect life, bird life and mammal life as it relates to Veterans Park.
"Lake Metroparks has monitored the growth of white trillium in this area over the past 10 to 15 years and we have records that showed us that there were over 1,000 white trillium on a small plot, a 10' x 10' area," said Adair. "That site within the past two to three years has yielded no more than a dozen white trillium."
Plants inside the fenced area at Veterans Park are now protected from deer. Over time, this will show us how a healthy forest in Northeast Ohio can recover.
Click here to watch the video. The deer exclosure is the first segment of the program.
A riverbank stabilization project is currently underway at the park located off of Reeves Road entrance.
The Lake Metroparks Greenway Corridor Southern Connector Bikeway Project is intended to provide a safe connection to link the existing northern section of the bikeway corridor with the existing southern section of the bikeway corridor that were completed in 1993 and 2001, respectfully.
The southern section of the asphalt path extends from Girdled Road to Colburn Road in Concord Township (at the Geauga County line). The northern section of the asphalt path extends from Ravenna Road in Concord Township to Jackson Street in the City of Painesville. There is a gap of several miles where these two sections do not connect. There currently is not a safe way for bicyclists to travel from one section to the other.
Five alternate bike path routes were reviewed to make the connection between the two existing bike paths. The recommended preferred bike path route is the Concord-Hambden route that follows Crile Road, Auburn Road and Concord-Hambden Road. This route provides the benefits of access to the Quail Hollow resort, access to the restaurants and shops located in the Gristmill shopping center and the Quail Hollow subdivision while achieving the overall objective of a connection between the northern and southern portions of the Greenway Corridor Trail. (Click here for map)
The new connection will establish a multi-use path extending from the northern end of Lake County in Painesville City to the Geauga County line. At the Lake/Geauga County line, the Greenway Corridor meets Geauga County Park District’s Maple Highlands Trail. The Maple Highlands Trail currently extends from the northern Geauga County line to the north end of the City of Chardon, and then from the south end of the City of Chardon to Headwaters Park, southeast of Chardon. It will eventually be extended through the City of Chardon and then from Headwaters Park southeast to Parkman Township for a total of 20 miles.
Five alternate bike path routes were reviewed to make the connection between the two existing bike paths. The recommended preferred bike path route is the Concord-Hambden route that follows Crile Road, Auburn Road and Concord-Hambden Road. This route provides the benefits of access to the Quail Hollow resort, access to the restaurants and shops located in the Gristmill shopping center and the Quail Hollow subdivision while achieving the overall objective of a connection between the northern and southern portions of the Greenway Corridor Trail. (Click here for map)
Schedule Update
The first phase of detailed design and engineering is underway and will be submitted to ODOT for review and approval. Because of the other potential projects planned for the Crile-Auburn-SR 44 intersection and the proposed Capital Parkway intersection and our need to coordinate with these projects, our timeline remains uncertain.
Updated April 19, 2013
In an ongoing effort to provide quality and safe access to our visitors, the driveway into and the parking lot at Chagrin River Park Reeves Road entrance was replaced and paved in May 2013.
|
