by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

One of my favorite people in the Hamilton County family of public servants is the “park guy,” Al Patterson. Unfortunately for the county, Al is retiring after 28 years of building our award-winning county park system to become the best in the state.

Many counties have maybe one small park, some have none administered by the county. Hamilton County had a small park system consisting of about 190 acres in 1992 when Al became parks director. Some of that land was not yet developed for park use.

In a county such as ours, it was obvious that the ideal land was going fast for residential and commercial development, so acquiring land with park potential was a “now or never” proposition.

Al took the lead in getting most of the current 1,600 acres of parkland. About half that land came through working with the estate of the late Dan Taylor who owned the historic farm we now know as Koteewi Park at Strawtown.

Development of Cool Creek Park near Westfield with its widely acclaimed nature center and summer concerts came under Al’s direction.

While serving as assistant to the county commissioners, one of the most memorable phone calls I got was from Jesse Cox in 1998 when out of the blue Jesse asked if Hamilton County would be interested in having his farm as a donation. I called Al, and he took it from there.

The county accepted the generous offer, and Jesse and his wife also gave a very large amount of money to develop what became Coxhall Gardens on 116th Street.

Al Patterson came to us from Connersville where he had directed city parks. With support from county commissioners, council members, and the assistance of deputy director Chris Stice and staff, we now have a group of 13 parks with great attractions ranging from bird watching to ziplining that is the envy of the state.

Al and his wife, Laura, are moving to Wisconsin where they have family, including a new grandson.

Al deserves our sincere thanks for a job well done. We will miss him.