CLAYCOMO, Mo. — Wrapped into Claycomo, just off the highway in a neighborhood, you can find a baseball field, swings, a slide and a merry-go-round — they are home to Claycomo City Park.
But currently, they’re all behind lock and key.
In recent months, the Village of Claycomo closed the park and new barriers enclose it.
“It’s been here for a long time,” said Dawn Custer, who lives near the park.
Custer, surrounded by her neighbors, is each trying to save the park, because the Village of Claycomo put it up for sale.
“Take the sign down, in all honesty, it doesn’t need to be sold,” Custer said. “We have kids up here who play up here constantly, the basketball courts are used all the time.”
Jason Dawson, economic development council chair for Claycomo, says he knows the park is filled with memories, but if you look closer, it’s falling apart.
“This park means a lot to a lot of people, I don’t want to discount that whatsoever — [there's] a lot of history,” Dawson said.
Melody Wymore, the clerk for the Village of Claycomo, pointed out some issues with the park.
“Look at the pavilion and where the posts meet the concrete, look at the wheelchair ramp," Wymore said. "A person would get seriously injured using it. [It's] Very steep, I honestly didn’t know that was a wheel chair ramp.”
They say to get the park into compliance would take a lot of money.
“To try to get this into a healthy state is financially extreme, so it’s not in the budget right now,” Dawson said.
Wymore talked about some of the challenges of funding the necessary upgrades for the park.
“We are a small village, and with us being a village and not a city, it limits how much we can bring in for taxes,” Wymore said.
The villagers say it’s something they’ve heard before and are pushing for more time in the park.
“My oldest, she’s up here all the time, she’s constantly walking her dog,” Custer said.
Dan Baumli, who also lives near the park, says selling the park will give children one less thing to do.
“There’s going to be a new generation coming in with young kids and stuff, they aren't going to have to have a place to go," Baumli said.
But the village says it’s imagining a new future.
“The vision for the board of trustees is not to just sell this place to any contractor who would be interested,” Dawson said. “But they are very, very hopeful to be useful like a downtown, or an arts district — something that would attract new people and a vibrancy to Claycomo that’s more or less an industrial district.”
But villagers aren't convinced that kind of development is the best solution for the park.
“I don’t want apartment units coming in here,” said Baumli.
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