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The Mercer County Commissioners plan to buy the 16-acre woods next to Westview Park in Celina.
CELINA - The Mercer County Commissioners plan to purchase just shy of 16 acres of wooded land in Celina Westview Park to incorporate into the Mercer County Fairgrounds.
Commissioners signed off Tuesday morning on a purchase agreement with the City of Celina for the 15.69-acre wooded lot at 0 Hierholzer St. Under the terms of the agreement, the county will buy the land for $157,000 and take possession of it on Aug. 1.
The land acquisition will be bankrolled with a $185,000 grant from the Ohio Public Works Clean Ohio Fund Green Space Conservation Program. The grant will also cover the expense to remove invasive flora that have taken root in the woods.
The state grant program is intended to protect conservation properties in perpetuity.
As part of the agreement, the woods will remain and be preserved in its natural state as an arboretum and no tree shall be removed unless necessary to preserve the area. It may never be subdivided, platted, developed or used for any other use, save for the construction of a single-family dwelling to be occupied by a caretaker and/or security officer.
No hunting or trapping will be permitted, either.
The county's plan for the 16-acre woods next to Celina's Westview Park includes a walking trail.
"We want to clean it up, and there's some dead (wood) in it, and then the invasive (plants) have really taken over," commissioner Brian Miller said. "So we want to clean it up and then develop a nice walking trail within it, and we think it's a good fit with the fairgrounds for education."
Bids will eventually be solicited to remove the invasive species, he added.
"It's making it a destination for people that want to go out and hike and learn about nature," Miller said. "Eventually it'd be nice to get some signage on some of the trees and stuff in there so that people can learn. I think a lot of people are going back to that."
Last summer, Celina City Council passed legislation permitting the land transaction.
Frank and Sandra Snyder donated what is known as Miller Woods to the city on Jan. 24, 2005, county records show. Deed restrictions stipulate the land must be maintained as a natural area. The land originally was held by Onilee and Chauncy Miller and named after them. (Frank Snyder is the publisher of The Daily Standard.)
"It had a deed restriction on it that you really couldn't do anything to it," Celina Mayor Jeff Hazel said at the June 23, 2025, meeting "It was a nice addition from the sense that it's all trees, it's got wildlife and plants, but we couldn't do anything with it."
Commissioners and fair board members, Hazel said, brainstormed ways to augment and complement the fairground with Miller Woods.
"They looked at, 'Hey, why don't we get together and figure out how to build a nature path, do something to get different tours in there, that's really kind of an (extension) of the ag side of the fair board and what they do at the fair?'" Hazel said last June. "They want to incorporate that at the fairgrounds."
The woods was appraised at $157,000.
"If they get the grant, they'll buy the property," Hazel said. "So the city of Celina will be able to see a beneficial use for that property, at which point the county would ultimately then fence that off to go in the fairgrounds, and at that point we would look to de-annex the Miller Woods so that it would become a full part of the county fairgrounds. We really think this is a great deal."
Hazel added at the June meeting that he would "love to be able to see something in there that allows kids for not just nature walks, but a learning center."
"And I think they'll be able to do this," he maintained.
Councilors also enthusiastically embraced the proposed land sale.
"If the county can come in and do something with it, with the understanding from the people that donated the land that they're able to do some things and make it something that's educational for this community, that'd be great," councilman Eric Clausen said at the June 2025 meeting.
