Wildlife sanctuary upkeep on hold
Officials await transfer to county park board
Limbs and other debris accumulated so heavily in a sometimes dry creek bed they damaged a bridge in place less than a year, making the bridge unsafe. Recent storms brought trees down on walking paths, making them unsafe as well.
Former members of the Porter County Wildlife Management Advisory Board, who also are relatives of Paul C. Zona Sr., the namesake for a wildlife sanctuary in Jackson Township, are frustrated that large scale maintenance at the sanctuary is at a standstill while the property and responsibility for it are transferred from the Porter County Board of Commissioners to the park board.
Commissioners didn’t appoint anyone to the advisory board at the start of the year because of the expected transition but as fall approaches, former board members said they are left without the ability to round up volunteers and resources to handle larger projects on the land, even though the county’s park department is taking care of trash, light trail maintenance and maintaining a portable toilet in the sanctuary’s small parking lot.
“I just want to see the place get maintained. My father-in-law donated the property because he enjoyed spending time outside
with his family,” said Bob Gregg, former president of the advisory board. “That’s why my father-in-law donated this, so families could spend time together and create unity.”
Zona donated 92 acres of undeveloped land to Porter County for use as a wildlife sanctuary on Oct. 5, 1999, his 89th birthday. He died eight days later, according to Post-Tribune archives. The Paul C. Zona Sr. Wildlife Sanctuary at 601 E. County Road 950 North was officially dedicated by county officials and members of the advisory board in May 2006.
Discussion about the transfer started around two years ago and started picking up some speed earlier this year, before the COVID-19 pandemic shut things down. The property, said Commissioner Jim Biggs, R-North, in whose district the sanctuary sits, is too much for the advisory board to manage, and also could be of benefit to county residents.
“I understand their concerns and to a great degree I agree with their concerns, however, government has never won any awards for acting quickly,” Biggs said.
He has talked to David Hollenbeck, the park board’s attorney, about a letter from commissioners to the County Council about the transfer so the council is aware of the matter as hearings to craft next year’s budget get under way. There’s no advantage for commissioners in holding on to the sanctuary and responsibility for it, Biggs added.
“We have a very capable park board and they are more capable to care for it than commissioners,” he said, adding the transfer is in a “holding pattern” but he plans to make the matter a priority, possibly at commissioners’ Sept. 1 meeting, “that we turn it over and be done with it.”
Neither Craig Kenworthy, the park board’s president, nor Walter Lenckos, the parks superintendent, would comment on the matter, but Hollenbeck said he has been meeting with county attorney Scott McClure, representatives of the Zona family, and parks officials to come up with a plan that would benefit everybody involved.
The discussions have focused on how the park board would manage the property, bring it into the county’s park system and how the property would be used, Hollenbeck said.
Lenckos also did a due diligence report on the deferred maintenance needs at the sanctuary and the annual cost to maintain the property and keep it up, Hollenbeck said, adding all the details are a work in progress. He emphasized the park board’s role in doing minimal trail maintenance, handling the trash and maintaining the portable toilet.
“Those things we’ve done for quite a while but it would be more involved and more entailed if we as a park board were able to take it over,” he said.
Funding for maintaining the property and an annual wildlife festival held early each fall, at $25,000 a year in total, also came to a halt a few years ago, Gregg said, though the advisory board had been able to stretch those dollars. A balance of almost $14,900 would transfer with the property to the park board.
Regardless of the COVID -19 pandemic, Gregg said the festival, held for 10 years, was canceled for this year because of a lack of funding.
Other than the bridge and downed trees, Gregg said signs at the sanctuary’s entrance have been repeatedly stolen and neighbors have reported drug deals and use on the property at night. Two years ago, Porter County Sheriff’s Department deputies were called to investigate the destruction of the portable toilet with what appeared to be an explosive device.
The property was last maintained last fall by the advisory board, he added, whose members cut down trees and cleared debris by the bridge.
Rose Clemans, Paul C. Zona’s granddaughter, served two years on the advisory board and expected to serve again after she applied for this year. Board members, she said, weren’t informed commissioners were dissolving the board. She understands the function of the board was in flux because of the transfer of the property but said the advisory board had other wildlife duties it could attend to. Officials, she said, seem to be dragging their feet with the transfer.
“You only can get so many volunteers and most of the work was done by family. When the board dissolved, that took away the volunteers to do it,” she said, adding the board agreed to the transfer so the property would be maintained, “but now no one is maintaining it.”
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the PostTribune.