Doug Dresie Volunteer, Awardee, Community Service

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Good day, I'm Bob Pautke, your Connect Clermont host, and our guest today is Doug Dresie, the recent Clermont Chamber Salute to Leader Award winner for his leadership in Pierce Township's parks, which I know very well. So good day, Doug. Thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me.

So you've been a volunteer leader over  the Pierce Township Parks and Green Space Committee for 10 plus years.

Yeah, that's around there. I think I first may have started going to some of the green space meetings 2014 or 2015.

Oh yeah, so you're over a decade. So how many parks do you care for now?

So currently with the village of Amelia being dissolved a few years ago, so we picked up a couple of parks there. But there are five basic parks there. The Pierce Township website lists seven, but the two dog parks are actually within other parks. So like the Great Amelia Dog Park is part of Spencer Shank and the Lucas Corner Dog Park is within Lucas Corner Park.

Oh, I didn't know there was, was that other dog park there?

Yes. When Amelia dissolved?

That's correct. Yeah. So both Grove Park and Spencer Shank came with Amelia. There was a small little playground area called Arrowhead Park, but we don't even really list that because the playground equipment there was dangerous. And so the service department elected to go ahead and take it down. Take it down. And it was just a really small little neighborhood lot anyway, but yes.

So can you talk about the parks? So I'm very familiar with the changes that have taken place. So could you share with our audience the improvements that have been made in the various parks?

So a lot of things have really happened in the past 10 years. We've, you know, even prior to getting the Amelia parks through its dissolution, we, you know, did through some, you know, grants primarily, but we did some fundraising also to help offset some of the matching funds required for some of these grants. But we have put in a, like a band shelter with some restrooms at Locust Corner Park.

Which is great, by the way.

Yeah, that was a big need. We also expanded the hiking paths at Locust Corner Park and also improved safety because one of the walks was close to Locust Corner Road, which was a safety concern. So part of that project dealt with, you know, bringing that back in, kind of building a berm to kind of provide a buffer between the road and the playground itself. And a project that was fairly recently completed on the other side of the road is reworking the baseball field and relocating the basketball courts and adding some additional parking there at Locust Corner Park.

Some other things, another great thing that was added, you know, and I say this in that, you know, I'm part of the committee, but it takes a village and a large village, I guess. We've had a lot of people contribute in so many ways over the years. Like the dog park at Locust Corner Park is new. You know, it was dedicated kind of right towards during COVID, but like Lori Wilson was so instrumental in making that a reality. And so it was great to get the award, you know, to be recognized. But, you know, a lot of folks, you know, along the way contributed immensely to it.

Something else that was a need when we kind of absorbed the Amelia Parks, the playground equipment at Grove Park in particular was in kind of some safety hazards. And so we were actually able to, through the help and leadership of Alan Freeman, work through some COVID relief funds to put together funding to replace that playground equipment atGrove Park. And it's, you know, that was just dedicated a little over a year ago. Maybe even been a little bit longer than that, but it was great because Mr. Grow was still alive at the time, and he was able to attend the dedication, which was fantastic. That's excellent. He has since passed away in the past few months, which is unfortunate, but the namesake of the park, that was great. Sure.

So that was a big thing for Grove Park, getting that new playground and kind of taking away a safety hazard as well. So there's a nature park that's on Locust Corner Road. Correct. So do you know what the size of it, how many acres is that? It's roughly... What is there? So that is roughly 60 acres, and it's primarily walking trails. A lot of it is prairie, which the township kind of knows the front half and the back half alternatively every other year. But there's a lot of wildlife back there. We did have a scout project where they put in some bat houses back there, but even as you get back into the woods, there are some hiking trails back there. But a lot of people like to take their dogs there and roam.

You mentioned the scouts. I know the scouts work there, but I think they also did trail work in one or some of the parks as well. So they've done some trail work there at the Nature Park, but they've also done trail work at Locust Corner Park and most recently at the Pierce Preserve over the note property, the former field that was owned by Duke. We recently had an Eagle Scout project where they added some additional walking trails over there at Pierce Preserve. And those are some things that we continually get contacted by Eagle Scouts, which is great because we get free projects. But then they're able to fulfill their Eagle Scout requirements. So there's more trails that we'd like to add at Pierce Preserve along with Nope, and we'll utilize some of those projects for that.

We've recently been contacted by a scout who has selected a project at the hiking trails at Locust Corner Park to add a couple of foot bridges over some areas that were a little bit challenging. There is some terrain back there. Yeah, right. And that's one thing that's interesting about Locust Corner Park is it's about 60 acres, but only 12 of it is really cleared. The rest is woods, and there's roughly two to two and a half miles of hiking trails back there. But we've had a few different scout projects where they've added some trails or helped us in maintenance and that type of thing.

I know you run events in the course of the year, so what are some of those events that take place? So especially coming out of COVID, we wanted to start trying to build more community and create some family-friendly events. So like for this summer, we've got three, well, summer and early fall, we've got three movie nights in the park, and those are free to the public. And those are fun. We usually try and select family-friendly movies. Our first one is this Saturday the 17th, and it's The Wild Robot. But we typically, you know, and turn out, weather permitting, we usually end up with 60 to 70 people. They bring their families, you know, blankets and, you know, just have a good time. We always get popcorn at a really good rate from R-Day Cinema and, you know, offer some free water and all of that. So those are fun.

And we've got, this year we've got three concerts in the park. We've done, we did two last year. And so we're doing one in June 21st, July 19th, and then August 23rd. So we'll see how the three go. That's with the, you know, regular volunteer core, volunteer group that we have. That's a lot of work. That is a lot of work. And so, you know, we need to be kind of mindful of that and biting off more than we can chew. But, you know, we usually get some food trucks there and try and get some type of car organization or Jeep organization to bring out vehicles out there. And I alsojust want to give a shout out to Ohio Landsar, who is a nonprofit group that is, they're all volunteers, but they do a lot of search and rescue. But they are a huge help to us for our events. I mean, they come out, they'll have the first aid station, they'll provide directing traffic and getting folks safely with their vehicles and all of that. But I just want to give a shout out to them because they are such a huge help.

What's the name of that organization again? Ohio Landsar. So it's L-A-N-D-S-A-R, search and rescue. But great organization. So you're very kind and it's well deserved. I mean, so you're leading a committee of people. You've already talked about scouts coming in and helping and Landsar coming in and helping. So it really does, quote unquote, take a village to get these parks maintained and then the uses that they bring in.

Yeah, and some of the core volunteers really contribute a lot. You know, Michelle Ballaside, you know, she lives in Amelia and she kind of came on when the village was dissolved and has been a huge help. And so she tries to keep everybody in the loop as far as needs over there, but then also contributing to the events. But she heads up the big Christmas parade every year, and that's more of a kind of joint project. But she's headed that up for years. But she's kind of brought in some of those contacts like High Alliance and they've helped at like National Nights Out and that type of thing as well.

So how did you get involved with Parks and Parks Committee? So I don't know. I just felt something like I wanted to do something to contribute to the community and didn't really know what. And just started asking questions, as you well know. And then there were answers. And so I thought that would be an interesting thing to explore and just started coming to, at the time, it was just the green space committee. And Clarence Roller was kind of the chair at that time. And his health started going down a little bit. And he recently passed away within the past couple of years. But so he started kind of backing out. And so Pat Hogan, who's still heavily involved, he was one of the original green space members as well. But he is just extremely active in the group now as well, or still. And we've, through collaborating and working through it, I just kind of started leading some meetings because of Clarence kind of circling back some of his activity.

George Carpenter, who has passed away a couple of years ago, he kind of got involved shortly after I did. And I think working with the group, he pushed a lot as far as some of the initiatives and developing the master plan. And when some of those bigger projects kind of wound down, he wanted to kind of back away. He said there were other things he wanted to do. And he still kind of involved some in the background and all that. But he always considered me the leader of the group. And I'm like, I never really claimed to be the leader of the group. It just kind of evolved into where I started leading the meetings and that type of thing.

So community service is very, very rewarding. It's very much needed. So how is this process, this 10-year process, how satisfying have you found that?

Oh, it's been very satisfying. I mean, you see things happen and evolve and things that you can be proud of. Certainly has not gone without challenges as well. I mean, I know you well know with your in the public eye, there's, you know, can be darts coming your way as well. But no, I think all in all, it's been rewarding. AndI think the thing that's been one of the more rewarding things is just the connections we've made with people and, you know, other volunteers in the group. You know, I mean, I consider them friends, you know. And, you know, I think people just kind of come in and they take some of the talents that they have and just contribute. I think, so there's many people that do community service work speak to the satisfaction in giving to others and the connections, the friendships. So it's more than connections, I think, the friendships.

Right. So you were honored, we talked about this when we opened, you were honored at Salute to Leaders Award for the work that you've led and the collaboration. I think a great amount of the reason that you were nominated is because of your collaborative spirit. So talk about that evening a little bit. How did that feel? Well, it felt good. One, you know, as volunteers, you know, you're maybe somewhat in kind of the background and making some things happen and that sort of thing. But it felt good to be recognized, you know, by the leadership in the township, you know, for the award. So it was a nice evening, a nice ceremony. It was good to see some of the other and hear about some of the other recipients and what they've done in the, you know, townships or communities that they serve. Yeah, it was a great event and I was happy to applaud you very much. I think it was very well deserved. And once again, I know it does, it takes volunteers, it takes an organization, it takes a village. And so you deserved it and you deserve it on behalf of all those people.

So what's your vision for those parks? Project out five, eight years from now, what would you like to see? So, you know, we developed a master plan back in 2016 and we did an update. So that's almost, yeah, so we did an update in 2021 to kind of reflect some of the, you know, projects that had happened. And so there's still some things out there. Obviously, funding is a huge issue. You know, Pierce Township, you know, we don't have the large commercial base that some of the other communities in Clermont County have, like Indian Township or Miami Township. So funding can be a challenge and, you know, we need to look towards, you know, grant opportunities to really fund some of these, you know, projects.

But, you know, so a big thing that, you know, when Pierce Township did some surveys back in, I don't know, 2015 timeframe, you know, a big thing people talked about was restrooms with running water at the parks. And so, you know, that was a big initiative and that happened. So there at Locust Corner Park, we do have restrooms with running water. So a big improvement and much appreciated.

So along with that, at a large park over in Amelia is Spencer Shank Park. And, you know, nice shelter house there, large playground, disc golf. It's a big park from an area standpoint, but it could really use some restrooms. So that's something that, you know, we've identified and it's, you know, it's a need over there. You know, getting the playground equipment replaced at Grove Park was a need, which we're thankful for that. At Locust Corner Park, you know, some things that the tennis courts really need to be resurfaced. That's not a cheap endeavor. A few years ago, we did some repairs, but really to do it right, it really needs a full resurface. So that's something that, you know, is going to be a need down the line.

But I think, you know, some bigger picture items that are out there, you know, in our master plan is it would be nice to develop a, like a first responders memorial at Locust Corner Park. I think Chief Bachman, former police chief, was very good friends with Bill Brewer, who was killed in the line of duty. And so there was talk of potentially doing a Bill Brewer memorial. And Chief Bachman was kind of heading that up, and that really hasn't gone anywhere. But I think that's something that, you know, we can maybe try and tie into whether itbe a standalone or something with the first responders. Because he was actually buried in Pierce Township. Yes, he was. Yes, he was. And Chief Bachman retired, so as normal without some kind of... Somebody driving that, correct. It slows down a little bit.

Do you imagine that there would be additional acreage, space? Is it like... I mean, I don't think you're looking... I shouldn't assume that. I mean, are you looking for additional space or are you looking just to upgrade, improve? I think right now it's just kind of upgrading and improving. I think if there is any kind of additional space or initiative-type projects like that would come through the trustees, I'm sure that they would reach out to us for input. But as far as suggesting purchasing property and that type of thing that really kind of gets above our pay grade, so to speak. Yes.

But yeah, so I mean, I think primarily it's just kind of looking at the resources we have and what are some priority things that need to be accomplished.

It strikes me for the size of the township, I mean, there is an awful lot of park and green space that is protected. Yes. And a lot of it is still just kind of wild. Right.

Does that seem to you as a higher percentage kind of like township to township? I mean, it seems to be like a higher grade about to me. I'm not sure. I mean, I really haven't done any kind of research to look at that one way or another.

I think one thing that is kind of nice about what we have and you look at the Pierce Preserve and the Nature Park and the Trails of Locust Corner and with this being kind of a semi-rural, semi-urban community is that I think a lot of people like those nature amenities, being able to be out and enjoy that. And so I think that's kind of a nice thing versus just having just a big baseball sports complex or things like that.

Yeah. So I wasn't attempting to be competitive with the township on a percentage, but it does seem to me that it's the mix. I think my question would have been better about the mix and you answered it, the preserves, the natural areas. So there is a nice mix of those kinds of things, totally protected, and then amenities in parks and all. Sure.

Any last point about the number of Pierce Parks and the amenities that you'd either like to reiterate or that we haven't covered? No, I think just, you know, I think the community events are gaining a little momentum. You know, I think, you know, the trustees wanted to make sure that we're utilizing and people are coming to the parks and utilizing those. And, you know, I think as a committee, we want to try and make sure that in the future, those types of things can happen like over at Spencer Shank as well. But one thing that's always brought up, you know, when we talk about doing something there for an event is the restroom situation. So that kind of puts that, you know, on kind of a front burner as far as a priority to be able to host something like that.

I understand. Well, I congratulate you and your volunteer committee and the various volunteers for really improving the Pierce Township parks and nature centers.

Our guest today has been Doug Dresie, who is the recent Clermont County Salute to Leader Award winner for his leadership in Pierce Township parks. Doug, thank you very much for being here and for all the good work that you continue to do.

Okay. And again, thank you for having me.

You have been listening to a Connect Clermont podcast episode, part of a series focusing on the good news happening in and around Clermont County, Ohio. Be sure to listen to our next episode on your favorite podcasting service. And remember, have a good day, Clermont.