A new park is starting to take shape next to Ozark Ridge Golf Course.
The Poplar Bluff Parks & Recreation Department recently completed the purchase of the property adjacent to the city-owned golf course with plans to turn it into a park where people can enjoy the outdoors.
“We’re hoping the main entrance to the golf course comes off (South Westwood Boulevard),” said Lanny Corcimiglia, Director of Parks and Recreation.
“You’ll come through a park and the park will consist of a couple of playgrounds, public fishing pond, some parking places and eventually walking trails.”
The new park is about 45 acres, larger than Hendrickson Park and about the size of McLane Park without the sports complex or parking, Corcimiglia said.
It already has a pond on the southeast corner of the property, a feature that Corcimiglia hopes will be the centerpiece of the park.
“Our main thing is we like to have public access fishing there,” he said.
Work has started on the site with the removal of a fence and underbrush between the golf course’s parking lot and the pond. Corcimiglia hopes to make the pond larger, up to 4.5 acres, and build an additional 1.5 acre pond on the northeast side of the park.
Corcimiglia plans to meet with the Missouri Department of Conservation about those plans.
“Over the next few months, we’re working on getting the area around the pond accessible for public fishing,” he added.
Poplar Bluff city officials have recently applied for a grant to build a fishing pond near the intersection of Shelby and Roxie roads on city property near the under-construction police department. The 3.25-acre pond would be part of a small park, expected to be called Pike Creek Park.
Corcimiglia said that park would eventually become part of the Park Department’s maintenance budget.
The newly purchased land next to Ozark Ridge Golf Course will be named Leist Park.
Corcimiglia said the land was previously owned by John W. and Tammy A. Leist, who sold it at a reduced price.
“They were phenomenal people to work with,” Corcimiglia said. “The park board voted for that as well. We’re happy to do it just because of the size of the donation.”
Corcimiglia said the land was appraised for $370,000 and the purchase price was $200,000. Half of the money paid by the Park Department was from an anonymous donation.
McLane Park was also named for the previous owner, Dr. Jerry F. McLane, who agreed to sell more than 70 acres at a reduced price with the Park Department paying $150,000 in 1997.
It took nearly two years to turn the land into what McLane Park is today and Corcimiglia said Leist Park will be a work in progress.
“It will be exciting over the next 12 to 24 months to see what this turns into and how it starts growing, and everyone will get to watch with us,” Corcimiglia said.
The first phase of the plan is to expand the fishing pond and create access to it for the public.
Currently, the parking lot at the golf course can accommodate about 70 vehicles with the entrance off Cravens Road.
Corcimiglia said the next phase is to build a road off South Westwood (Business 67) to the golf course parking lot with more parking also planned.
Another phase of the project will be building walking trails, which a plan estimates could be 1.25 miles, along with pavilions and a playground area.
There is also room to replace the aging Ozark Ridge clubhouse in the future, Corcimiglia said. The location of a new clubhouse would be closer to the 18th green, to the north of the practice green.
“We’re not going to be a private country clubhouse, it’s still going to be a city course but we can have something that’s not 30 or 40 years old,” Corcimiglia said.
“The added parking spaces, that’s going to enhance it just in itself.”
Corcimiglia said he could envision a small nature center and some wetland area in the park at some point.
“It may take us three years to get it all complete,” Corcimiglia said, “but now that we’ve purchased the land we can move ahead with the plan.”