Iron Senergy, a company that is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and operates longwall mines in Waynesburg, donated land that was previously being leased to Franklin Township.

The park is located at 252 Jefferson Rd.

“We had entered into a lease agreement on that park facility years ago with the other mining company that had owned those assets. And so that lease continued on whenever Iron SenergySynergy acquired all of it,” Corbly Orndorff, chairman of the Franklin Township supervisors, said. “That included the mining firm, their two active mines here in Greene County, the other facility and the one in the township and their surface rate surface things. So they reached out to us and said that they really wanted to go ahead and make this a long term, long term commitment.”

According to a press release, Iron Senergy “strives to give back to the communities in which we live and work.” The company’s website states that the company emphasizes active community engagement. Orndorrf said the only thing the company requested in exchange was putting Iron Senergy’s name on the park sign.

The donation involved splitting up a larger lot and combining a piece of the lot with several of Iron Senergy’s other lots, and then signing the deed over to the township.

“They had to do a lot split because that portion of the property was part of a larger parcel that the route 181 highway had divided… We had to do the paperwork to get the lot split and have the road become the new property line between the park and Iron Senergy’s property,” he said. “There was a couple small parcels of the park that were totally on that side of the road and then we combined them into one deed for park facility.”

According to Orndorff, the decision to donate the property made sense to both parties.

“They didn’t have any use, future uses for that property. And it made sense to us because we had recently applied for some grant funding to upgrade one of our other parks,” he said. “It was really solving a paperwork issue to allow us to secure grant funding for future upgrades.”

Orndorff said the township is planning to acquire grants to improve the park. He said Franklin Township is in the process of renovating Crawford Park, which is located at 122 S. Porter St. The township will finish that project before tackling upgrades at the new Franklin Township Iron Senergy park. 

“We’re trying to get through [the Crawford Park] building process, which will be in 2023. We’re getting the plans reviewed and the state has to approve our contract design,” he said. “We want to complete that process, and then target similar grant sources that we used for Crawford… we want to see how we get through this process. This is our first park renovation process using state funds. There’s a learning curve.”

Franklin Township Iron Senergy park currently has a concession stand with restrooms, three soccer fields, a kayak launch and a gravel parking area. Orndorff said there are no specific plans for potential additions. 

“We anticipated to start construction this summer at Crawford. So I’m a little hesitant to throw out exact plans.”

Although there are no exact plans in place, Orndorff said he expects a playground area to be added to the park.

“The area is screaming for a playground facility,” Orndorff said. “There is space beside the soccer field that could easily be developed with playground equipment, like slides, monkey bars, whatever.”

He also said that he would like to see improvements made to make the park more ideal for family gatherings, and said there could possibly be a pavilion installed.

So far, Orndorff said the township has not received a lot of feedback about the donation from township residents. He attributed it to the buildup ahead of the actual donation.

“We haven’t heard a lot, I’ll be honest. What we’ve heard has been very positive,” he said. It’s been in the works for about a year, and I think many of the residents had heard about it before it actually happened, so it wasn’t a big ‘wow.’”

According to Orndorff, the donation of and potential upgrades to the park are another way of improving quality of life in the township as a way to gain and retain residents.

“One of our critical priorities going forward is to expand on our existing recreation areas here and improve quality of life in this area so we could be more attractive to young families that would like to either relocate here or young families that are here to stay,” he said.