Residents Concerned City May Sell Scheffel-Thurston Park

Residents in a Jacksonville neighborhood are concerned the city will sell Scheffel-Thurston Park, a small park in the city's historic district.

The city owns the park at E and 3rd streets, but two Jacksonville families have been taking care of it for more than thirty years.

City officials say the possibility of selling the park, has been mentioned before.

Linda Graham will always remember the days when this park was nothing more than an empty lot.

"Remember barren decomposed granite these trees were no more than a couple of feet high," Graham said with a laugh. "They've grown beautifully."

She calls it a work of love.

"This was my folks project, and the Thurston's project, theyre the ones who put all the backbreaking work into it," says Graham.

Graham says her father, Jim Sheffel, who lives behind the park, is upset about the thought of it going up for sale.

City officials say the issue of selling the park along with other city owned land has been mentioned before, but has not been officially discussed. Graham says she knows it will happen eventually.

"I'm a realist it probably will be surplused," she said.

Some neighbors say they're don't want to lose one of few natural spaces left in the city. They say they came to Jacksonville, for it's small town feel.

"When I first moved here I thought I'd died and gone to heaven," said Marilyn Earl who has been living across the street from the park for more than 30 years.

"We didn't move here to be in a big city again move and more buildings move ambiance of place small town quality of life here," said Gail Gardner, does not want city to sell park.

"People with children people walking their dogs really nice for me to look out and see the greenery," said Earl.

It's a sight some say, they can't stand to see go.

"I think we need a lot more parks around here most towns have park for people to have somewhere to go to have refuge," said Gardner.

There's a plaque on the park's only bench and even though the words have faded, Linda Graham says it was dedicated to her grandfather and the Thurston family.

City administrator Paul Wyntergreen says the park is not on the table for surplusing as of now. He says the issue has been discussed at several city meetings, to bolster capital improvement projects.