TURTLECREEK TOWNSHIP — After nearly 18 months of planning and discussions, township trustees are to begin work on the community's first park.

        Warren County commissioners this week approved a site plan for the 25-acre park near Greentree Road and Ohio 741. Construction of an entrance road and a parking lot could begin this fall and might take much of next year, Turtlecreek Trustee Jim VanDeGrift said.

        “We're going to do a lot of the work ourselves, with our own people,” he said. “We're going to do it in phases, as time and money will allow.”

        It is not known how much the project will cost, he said.

        The township bought the site in 1998 from Otterbein-Lebanon Retirement Community for $142,000. The parkland is adjacent to a Turtlecreek Township fire station and next to the retirement community.

        The park will feature a wooded walking trail, open green fields, picnic groves and shelters, Mr. VanDeGrift said. In planning meetings, residents said they did not want such things as baseball and soccer fields.

        The first portions of the park likely won't be ready until at least next spring, officials said.

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