WARSAW — During the Aug. 16 Warsaw Park Board meeting, the board revisited the idea of a no smoking ordinance in the parks and the possibility of an ice rink.

During the July 19 Park Board meeting, the board passed a motion to not approve a recommendation to the city council. After further review of the minutes, Superintendent Larry Plummer noticed that the board didn’t actually have a majority vote of three board members. So the board decided to revisit the topic.

“I still have a problem with the recommendation to prohibit smoking because I just don’t think it is enforceable,” said board member Larry Ladd. “I have no issues with signage in the parks.”

The board again passed a motion to not approve a recommendation to the city council, but this time with a majority vote. The board then passed a second motion to start making plans for no smoking signage to appear in the park.

“We will have to do a little work before we start just popping signs up,” said Plummer.

The board also discussed the progress on the ice rink proposal. An ad hoc committee has been created and met to figure out the logistics of the ice rink. The project will stand as an ice rink and park office multi-use facility.

The project was first proposed with the ice rink being placed in the middle of Central Park. After the ad hoc committee met, they decided that the ice rink would work better in the current Center Lake Pavilion position.

“The appealing part of this is that it wouldn’t take any green space from the park,” said Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer, who is a member of the ad hoc committee.

The next step with the ice rink is to explore the exact placement and cost of the project. A motion was approved for the ad hoc committee to go ahead with this planning.

Other Business:

• Sheila Wieringa, recreation direction, gave an activities report. She stated that 7,500 people attended the country concert and 2,500 people attended the family carnival.
• Mayor Thallemer mentioned that even though Warsaw was not a stellar finalist, the city was still hoping to get some of the park projects done.
• Shaun Gardner, maintenance director, gave a project update. He stated that the park has began working on Bixler Park and that they had been treating weeds and cleaning up the green way.
• The next Park Board meeting will be on Tuesday, Aug. 20 at 5:15 p.m.