Mill Creek Park’s old ice-skating rink is getting a blue makeover courtesy of a team that wears black and gold.

On Tuesday morning, volunteers from Mill Creek MetroParks, Home Savings, the Youngstown Phantoms and The Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation were laying down blue tiles for the park’s new dek hockey rink.

Dek hockey is the outdoor version of ice hockey that is typically played on foot instead of skates. Unlike the facility its replacing, the dek can be used all year.

“That’s one of the most exciting parts about adding this recreational opportunity,” said Aaron Young, MetroParks executive director. “Everybody knows the history of the Wick Recreation Area. This new project is a tip of the cap to the old history of what used to be here. It’s just in a new and improved manner.”

The Dek is the foundation’s first dek in Ohio after building 13 in western Pennsylvania. It’s part of the foundation’s Project Power Play meant to make a more affordable version of hockey accessible.

Mill Creek and the foundation – a nonprofit whose primary sponsor is the NHL franchise – linked up through the Phantoms and Home Savings came aboard to contribute.

“We’ve done some promotional stuff with the Phantoms and we were approached by Mill Creek Park with a strong interest, asking ‘How do we put a dek up?’” foundation president Dave Soltesz said. “For us, it’s about growing the game. This is a market where we have youth hockey teams already, but how can you introduce more kids to the game?

“It’s great for parents. You can have a kid say he wants to play hockey and do you want to go out and buy skates and all that stuff? It’s cool to just go out there and play the game,” Soltesz said.

The Dek features covered benches and an electronic scoreboard.

The estimated $250,000 facility was completed Tuesday afternoon.

Young said he didn’t have exact figures to what the MetroParks paid, but said it was “minimal” with the foundation covering the majority of the costs.

The dek is expected to become fully operational in 2019, with leagues and safety rules established around that time. The Phantoms will also run clinics on dek hockey.

“It’s too soon with Mother Nature creeping up on us here. The hope is by 2019, we have everything for leagues to operate,” Young said.

“We’re evaluating our own operations in terms of running leagues. We’re not through with our evaluation just yet, which is why 2019 is more realistic to us.”

Phantoms head coach Brad Patterson had his own version of dek hockey growing up Cranbrook, British Columbia, which was hockey on the concrete floor of a local fire hall. It’s one of his fonder memories of his sport and one area kids can have – minus the concrete.

“It’s not always about being coached or being out there in a formal setting. It’s about being able to go out there and try new things, have fun with it and get out with friends and family,” Patterson said.

“I think this being out here in the area gives us a huge outlet to do that.”

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There are officially two new wooden bridges on the hiking trail at Sebring Woods in Mill Creek MetroParks.

According to a press release, the hiking trail is named after the creek that the bridges cross over, Fish Creek Trail.

It is a 0.7-mile loop, and it has two natural creek crossing and provides a variety of habitats throughout.

To access the trail people can park in the aggregate parking lot located on Johnson Road in the Village of Sebring.

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Those in the Mahoning Valley in the market for an idyllic home amid an expansive verdant setting won’t want to miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to benefit themselves and the Valley’s most valuable natural asset in the process.

That opportunity takes the form of a 4,417-square-foot mansion that straddles Struthers and Poland Township currently valued at $450,000 that’s up for auction through 4 p.m. next Wednesday and will likely sell far, far below that price. The top bid Tuesday stood at $175,000.

But the lucky individual home buyer is not the only one who will benefit from the sale. So, too, will the stately Ford Nature Center, an educational institution and learning lab that’s an integral part of the Mill Creek MetroParks system.

Thanks once again to the generosity and community-mindedness of Valley philanthropists extraordinaire Bruce and Nancy Beeghly, all proceeds from the sale of the property will be funneled into a $3 million renovation and modernization of the 46-year-old nature center on Old Furnace Road in Mill Creek Park’s northern tier in Youngstown.

Several years ago, Bruce and Nancy Beeghly donated the home to the MetroParks. After park officials determined it would best be preserved as residential property, the benefit sale was on.

To be sure, the Clingan Road contemporary home built by the Beeghlys in 1993 is no run-of-the-mill property. Consider some of its tantalizing features: vaulted ceilings, multiple decks, large windows that bathe the rooms in light and look out onto surrounding woods, four bedrooms (two of which are master suites), three full bathrooms plus two half-baths, great room with a fireplace, den, Florida room and attached garage.

We encourage all of those with sufficient resources to register their bid online at Byce Realty’s online auction site at www.byceonline.com or contact the Realtor for more information at 330-747-7000.

On its website, Byce calls the property, “the most substantial single family residence we have ever brought to auction. Don’t miss this opportunity.”

LEGACY OF BEEGHLY GIVING

That opportunity also continues a proud and productive legacy of community giving that stretches back a century for the Beeghly family, a name synonymous with the titans of business and industry in the Mahoning Valley.

The property gift mirrors the Beeghly family’s donation of the family homestead in Boardman to Western Reserve Care System in 1965, which today has expanded into the home of Akron Children’s Hospital-Mahoning Valley, Beeghly Campus. Bruce and Nancy donated an additional $1.5 million to that campus for a major expansion project last year.

Over the years, the family has contributed to well over 100 groups, organizations and causes, including a $1.5 million donation to Youngstown State University’s ongoing We See Tomorrow fundraising campaign.

Whoever is lucky enough to secure the Clingan Road property also claims bragging rights to enhancing a key institution in the Metroparks.

The nature center, itself once a residential property, was donated by the family of Mahoning Common Pleas Judge John W. Ford in 1968 and began operations as a hands-on educational facility four years later. Since then, its use and popularity have grown multifold, but its physical stature has begun to show its age. Without a corrective face-life, the center will find it difficult to maintain and build upon its stellar reputation, park officials warn.

The nature center, in particular, and Mill Creek MetroParks, in general, rise as community gems and merit support. Such financial gifts also result in less reliance on local tax dollars for critical park maintenance.

For those without the means to bid on the Clingan Road home, the park is accepting donations of all sizes for the nature-center campaign. We hope many chip in as an investment in the future of the park and of the entire Mahoning Valley.

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The water in Yellow Creek Park is flowing freely again – thanks to yellow rubber ducks.

The Struthers Rotary, CASTLO and Rudzik Excavation partnered with Mill Creek MetroParks last month to dredge the pond at Yellow Creek Park, restoring the manmade attraction to its former depth and allowing the creek’s water to flow freely.

Mike Krake, member and former president of Struthers Rotary, said the project began because of a rubber-duck race.

“Every year we have a rubber-duck race fundraiser at the pond where people ‘buy’ rubber ducks to use in the race. We’ve noticed over the past few years the sediment buildup in the pond was starting to look bad and block the current, so we wanted to have it cleaned up before our race,” Krake said. “We remembered how it used to look there, and we wanted to get it back to that condition.”

This year’s Rubber Duck Race will take place Aug. 18 at the park.

Yellow Creek Park is part of Mill Creek MetroParks, so to clean the pond, Rotarians had to clear their plan through the park.

Justin Rogers, planning manager at the MetroParks, said the Rotarians’ request was timed conveniently; cleaning the pond already was on the park’s priority list.

“We had actually identified the problem as needing attention when the Rotary club came to us,” Rogers said.

Rotary offered to fund the entire project, donating $5,000 to the MetroParks for the operation. Once funding was in place, an excavator removed the sediment in the pond.

Krake said the project was a Struthers-wide endeavor; Rudzik Excavating provided the labor and equipment, CASTLO agreed to store the sediment, and Struthers police officer Pat Bundy organized the various players.

The sediment removed from the pond was nontoxic, largely just rocks and other natural material deposited from upstream sources — so the digging didn’t create any adverse environmental effects.

With its depth restored, Krake hopes to use the pond for more Rotary events.

“I’d like to look into eventually doing a youth fishing day at the pond,” he said. “We’d bring the kids down and get the pond stocked with fish for a nice day of fishing.”

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Have you ever wondered “How did that get in my lunch box?”

This is exactly the question guiding the group of 5-6 year-olds participating in Mill Creek’s Park Pals camp, called Food Quest, the week of July 9.

“The goal is for them to figure out where their food comes from, to have all their questions answered,” said Brenda Markley, a Mill Creek Parks employee who is running the camp.

During this 5-day camp children will learn about all the different areas of the Mill Creek Farms.

The camp took place throughout five days, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. and each day had a different theme.

“Basically to introduce the idea that that is what farmers do,” Markley said, “Kids love to eat so just kind of getting the idea that that’s where it starts.”

On Monday, the children took a tour around the farm, where they went to personally meet the animals and even held the newest addition, baby goats.

Children rode on a tractor to the different farms, learning about the different plants and animals that grow and live there.

Tuesday the camp will focused on plants, how they grow, and the specific crops grown at Mill Creek Farms.

On Wednesday, the children focused on dairy, and Thursday they focused on fruit.

Then the camp wrapped up on Friday with another lesson, more in-depth, on animals and how we get food from them.

“We want to spark an interest as they get a little bit older to garden or to grow their own food,” Markley said.

Each day began with a story and included an abundance of activities such as making ice cream for the children to eat and creating food related crafts.

Mill Creek parks hosts two camps for the various age groups during the summer, one in June and on in July.

“Hopefully by the end of camp they will be able to open their lunches and recognize, okay those are fruits, and my sand which is made up of all of these parts from around the farm,” Markley said.

“We’ve done camps here for years, but we have restructured camps this year. Throughout the Metro parks we have done a series of camps and broke it down by ages.” Markley said.

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