Portage Park District eyes Crystal Lake in Rootstown as possible park
The Portage Park District is asking Ravenna to sell Crystal Lake, which once served as part of the city's water supply, so it can become a park.
Christine Craycroft, executive director of the Portage Park District, recently asked Ravenna City Council to sell the 25-acre lake to the park district. She said the park district is in negotiations with property owners for land surrounding the lake and hopes to apply for grants to improve the property. The grant application is due in January.
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The lake once provided part of Ravenna's water supply, but the city capped its water wells in 2016. The entire site is about 130 acres, Craycroft said. The lake is located in Rootstown, between South Prospect Street and state Route 5.
"Crystal Lake has been on our radar for a long time as a conservation property," Craycroft said. "It's a high-quality glacial lake. It has several endangered species on it. It has great potential to be a park someday."
Craycroft said one property owner has offered to sell his land to the park district, and the Nature Conservancy has offered to transfer its property to the district at no cost, which could be used as a match for grant funding. The park district already owns land near the Portage County Gardeners' Center, which was donated by Helen Dix several years ago.
Craycroft said the park district could help manage invasive species, including a colony of tall grass around the lake, and could also patrol the property to prevent problems like illegal trespassing. Park District ownership could also help with negotiations with the Ohio Department of Transportation to control stormwater runoff into the lake, because invasive species like the tall grass thrive in salt water.
Ravenna Mayor Frank Seman said the city would need to do its own analysis of the Crystal Lake proposal, and he was not sure it could be done in time for the park district to include the property in its January grant applications.
"There's a lot that could go wrong there with this," he said. "We need to analyze it and realize what a valuable asset this is."
Bob Lange, natural areas steward for the Portage Park District, said if the park district were to own the lake, it would do a thorough analysis of its own before deciding what could be done with the lake and the surrounding property.
"The park's intent would first and foremost be stewardship," he said.
He said the invasive species on the property have been impacted by factors such as power lines in the area and runoff from state Route 5, and he expressed hope that if the invasive species were removed, rare plants that are native to the lake could return.
"It's a really special lake," he said. "It's a fully natural glacial lake."
Crystal Lake originally was known as Ward's Pond, in honor of its discoverer, "Mother" Ward, who came across the lake while searching for a lost cow, Roger DiPaolo reported in Portage Pathways.
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Portage Park District eyes Crystal Lake in Rootstown as possible park
