Anyone know this lady's name? I have seen it in the paper. Laura New, Shannon Eason, Debbie Studtman, and Sophia Gasaway are all listed on the P&R home page.

A key part to integrating these trails with something like Striebel Pond would be purchasing or receiving as a gift some adjoining property. How does one go about locating the ownership of specific plots within the city limits? In the old days they had platt books. Is there a modern equivalent?



The trails were devastated after the straight line wind event last year. It was an absolute obstacle course. When the weather cools a tad and slows the mosquitoes, I will take a walk through it with the digital camera and give a state of the park update...

If you know the street address, you can find it here:

http://www.xsoftin.com/laporte/parcelsearch.aspx

that should be the county assessor's website.

I may see you there because I have not been there for a long time, maybe a year and a ½.

Stumper, I'll gladly take ownership of the subtitle of this thread! :-)

As for the platt books, real estate appraisers have them, so if you know any, or have a connection to any, I'm sure they can look it up for you. To use the book, you don't need the actual address, just the location of the property and the book will tell you its address and owner.
My mom used to work for an appraiser and she had one for all of LP Co. I don't know if she still does, and if she did it would be several years old, but I'll ask her tonite if she still has it and get back to you on it.

Thank you both for your responses.

And the Michigan City Public library has the 2007 Laporte County Plat book at the reference desk....

go to the online card catalog at


http://208.4.85.41:8098/html/public3/


and type in

"La Porte County, Indiana plat book"

and search for that title

Stumper, I saw this in Area Briefs in today's ND. I know it's about a guy, but I'm posting it here because of the organization he is with. They may be able to provide you with helpful tips for Ruby Woods. I don't know how to contact them, but I'm sure you could find that out...

They own or control the chunk of land on the NE corner of Barker Rd. and Cleveland. Probably some nice deer in there...

Well, last I knew that was all fenced in and you couldn't go on that property at all. I always wondered who owned that. I thought it was private property. I guess they are preserving it by keeping the people out, huh?

It was owned by the Nature Conservancy, an excellent group that buys property to preserve it. They do allow hunting in some of the properties, much as the Indiana DNR does, to maintain its balance. I do not think hunting would be allowed inside the City, however.

BTW, the lady at the Park Dept. is named Laura. She is leaving the Park Dept. for another job, so we will have to be vigilant about this, too, now.

Today I coated the family in Deep Woods DEET and headed off into the woods. Great news is that the Parks Department has cleared the "main" paths of most of the fallen trees, which means you can now take a leisurely stroll through the woods without too much climbing or crawling. Here are some observations:

1. If you have either been through the woods and know the paths or just have a good sense of direction, you will be fine making your way. However, the less adventurous would probably be quite uncomfortable. There really is no rhyme or reason to the path layout - its very possible that the paths now are nothing more than well travelled deer paths. There needs to be an effort to plan the layout of a main loop though the woods with access points at Jewel, Ohio St., St. Johns, and Village Green.

2. The paths are very uneven. In some places they are quite wide. Others places are very overgrown with underbrush and you have to fight your way through. The main path needs to be leveled and widened. A uniform surface then needs to be applied - either wood chips, crushed limestone or pavement. Underbrush needs to be cut back a uniform distance from the path.

3. There is a fair amount of junk and garbage that needs to be cleaned out. Once a main path (or loop) is built, there needs to be garbage receptacles placed a regular intervals that are emptied by the Parks Dept.

4. Its beautiful and peaceful out there. We saw a snake, wild grapes, a woodpecker, and a flock of blackbirds. Only when the path takes you up near the main thoroughfares do you hear the sounds of traffic. The Off worked great at keeping the mosquitos away. Over all it was a great experience.

At this point the property is obviously not a priority of the Parks Department. That would change by getting people into it to see want a great place it could be. A starting point would be to get a volunteer day planned for cleaning the woods of the junk and garbage. It would be wonderful to get donations for the cost of the cleanup from companies like Jewel, Horizon Bank and Midas that have properties which are adjacent to the woods. From there, it would make sense to hold a workshop for brainstorming ideas for improving the visibility and accessibility of the park.

Start by making a flyer (you can get copies at Office Max fairly cheap) and going around door-to-door for the people that live around Ruby Woods. They are going to most likely be the most interested as they will be the closest and probably first to use it. Set a target date for your volunteer clean-up day. With winter coming on, you should try for next spring. This will give you time to get all the other stuff together. Find a place to have the meeting that you can use rent free. Say the Jaycee Pavilion at Wash Park (so long as there is no event scheduled there for the day you want to do it) or some such other public park. If it's cold, meet at one of the clubs (St. Joe, Eagles, VFW) if you are a member of one. Also, contact the council person for that ward and tell him/her what you want to do and see if they would be willing to get involved. Once you have a band of volunteers, then solicit donations from the various businesses near-by. Let them know that you will advertise them as sponsors. Once you have your band of volunteers and group of sponsors, run an ad in the paper looking for more volunteers and be sure to list your sponsors in that ad. After it's all said and done, don't forget to run a thank you letter in the Anvil Chorus.
Good luck. If I was there, I'd be right beside you helping out, but you'll have to settle for the sidelines from me.

I was in there, and I agree that it needs lots of clean-up. Also, the trails are not marked and I ended up on Ohio, then later, on St John; neither of which border the park, according to the woman I spoke with at the Park Dept. LOTS of potential.