Columbus OH City Parks Question

[curt!s]

I would like to locate a cache within a City of Columbus park. Does anyone know if they have a geocaching policy or any guidelines? Has anyone contacted the Parks & Rec department about this? Just curious since there are already so many caches located on city park land.

 

Thanks,

Curtis

[+Rabid Bunny]

As far as I know Col. Metro Parks doesn't allow caches. Mr. 0 is a better authority on the subject. He's been our spokesman in the central Ohio area.

 

"Look at the bones!"

[+Mr. 0]

So far I have not receive word from the Metro Parks. I stopped in there a couple of weeks ago, and the person who oversees all 14 Metro Parks wasn't available, so the receptionist allowed me to leave a voicemail for him. She told me that he generally keeps a 3 day call back time, but still nothing. I'm probably going to call him sometime next week. I'd say for now see if you can track down the individual park manager where you might be interested in placing a cache and ask them for permission.

 

Mr. 0

 

"Remember that nature and the elements are neither your friend or your enemy - they are actually disinterested."

 

Department of the Army Field Manual FM 21-76 "Survival" Oct. 1970

[curt!s]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mr. 0:

I'd say for now see if you can track down the individual park manager where you might be interested in placing a cache and ask them for permission.

---

 

When you hear back from them, could you post on the forums. The park that I am interested in placing a cache is called Genoa Park. It is a 2 acre strip of open land between COSI and the river. It is more of an open space than it is a park. Aside from the great view of downtown, I there is a police memorial (and maybe a fire fighter's memorial). And of course, the target of the virtual cache. I think it's not going to be approved unless I make it a multicache. The problem is... on this 2 acre "park" the only vegetationis but a hand full of trees and they can best be desribed as overgrown saplings. I'm not sure that there is even a place to hide a micro cache.

 

City of Columbus Parks and Open Space within Franklin County

[+Bjorn74]

quote:

---

Originally posted by curt!s:

When you hear back from them, could you post on the forums. The park that I am interested in placing a cache is called Genoa Park. It is a 2 acre strip of open land between COSI and the river. It is more of an open space than it is a park. Aside from the great view of downtown, I there is a police memorial (and maybe a fire fighter's memorial). And of course, the target of the virtual cache. I think it's not going to be approved unless I make it a multicache. The problem is... on this 2 acre "park" the only vegetationis but a hand full of trees and they can best be desribed as overgrown saplings. I'm not sure that there is even a place to hide a micro cache.

---

 

Curtis,

 

There is a differance between Metro Parks and the City parks. You'll probably need to broach this with the City. The problem with Center City caches around here is that all of the parks downtown are residences for huge numbers of homeless people in the summer. The very best hiding spots are often used for sleeping or hiding personal property. You need to consider that as you hide the cache. The chances of a muggle swiping are fairly high.

[+Mr. 0]

Ohhhhh, my mistake, I was assuming Metro Parks, not actual city parks. Right now I haven't heard anything either way from them, and I'm not even really sure who to contact (I'll check out the link you posted in a little bit). I would say that since it would be a virtual the parks shouldn't have a problem with. As for approval on here....I would make sure to include in the description that there is no place to put a cache (I know the park you're talking about, and I agree, there isn't anywhere...as a matter of fact I didn't even know it was actually conisdered a park) and that it can only be a virtual....once it's approved, if you don't want that listed on there, then just edit the page and take that part out. That way you're a step ahead and can avoid the approver e-mailing you to ask you if a micro could be placed.

 

Mr. 0

 

"Remember that nature and the elements are neither your friend or your enemy - they are actually disinterested."

 

Department of the Army Field Manual FM 21-76 "Survival" Oct. 1970

[+Dub.]

OMG, I'm glad I came across this thread. I work at COSI and I just found a spot on the property to hide a nice cache. I looked all through the park for a good spot, but found one in the public free space owned by COSI. I'm going through the channels right now to see if they'll let me place the cache on the property. Their worry is that people will come and vandalize the building or the grounds that we pay so much to maintain. It will most likely get approved, but the first time a cacher tears up the grounds looking for it (i.e. the plants) it's gone.

 

________________________

I'm not saying we should kill all the stupid people in the world. I'm just saying we should remove all the warning labels and let the problem take care of itself.

[curt!s]

The reason I was asking about this is because I had submitted a request to place a virtual cache at the bus scale in the street between Genoa Park and COSI. It was initally denied because it was a virtual.

 

When I followed-up with additional information about the location, the person overseeing the approval assumes that since it is a "park" that there has to be an area to hide a cache. Anyone who has been to Genoa Park would probably agree that is not the case. He also failed to understand that it is a public street. He wanted me to get permission for people to drive down the street. Who do I ask for permission to drive a car down a public street?!?

 

Oh well... I guess if you get approval for a traditional cache on the grounds of COSI, it doesn't matter. I'll never get an approval for a virtual so close to it, even if I get permission for people to drive on a public street.

[What!]

I am trying to locate the information on the Columbus Metro Parks geotrail that is supposed to be on this site. The geotrail is a new program that is in the Summer edition of the metro Parks guide. There are 15 caches and the first 100 people to find all of them get a metro Parks Geocoin. But the information in the guide for using this site isn't accurate. Can anyone help?

[+larryc43230]

I am trying to locate the information on the Columbus Metro Parks geotrail that is supposed to be on this site. The geotrail is a new program that is in the Summer edition of the metro Parks guide. There are 15 caches and the first 100 people to find all of them get a metro Parks Geocoin. But the information in the guide for using this site isn't accurate. Can anyone help?

I also read that article and wondered about the GeoTrail. I get notifications for all caches published in the Central Ohio area, and I haven't seen any of the 15 caches published yet.

 

The profile for the Columbus Metro Parks geocaching account is here. However, no geocaches are listed yet under their profile. I'm guessing the article in the summer Parkscope was a tad premature.

 

I'm a big fan of the Columbus Metro Parks system; I'm looking forward to going after the new caches when they're published.

 

--Larry

 

Edited to add: They've now added an item on their home page about the Geotrail, with a link to a PDF version of the Parkscope article about the trail.

Edited May 31, 2013 by larryc43230

[+larryc43230]

Interesting... Columbus Metro Parks has also posted a PDF map showing the cache locations, with coordinates, on their Web site. However, one of the requirements for completing the series and claiming the coin is to log the finds on the geocaching site, which can't be done until the caches are officially published. I wonder if the caches have been placed yet?

 

Map of cache locations

 

--Larry

 

[+coachstahly]

 

Oh well... I guess if you get approval for a traditional cache on the grounds of COSI, it doesn't matter. I'll never get an approval for a virtual so close to it, even if I get permission for people to drive on a public street.

 

Not true unless your reviewers operate under a different set of rules than ours do. As long as there is no PHYSICAL cache within .10 miles of the traditional one that could get approved, you should be fine. There are quite a few multis that start with coordinates that lead you to a monument (or something of that sort), you get the information you need for the next set of coordinates, and then off you go. The way this works is the "physical" aspect. As long as you don't have a QR code, NFC Tag or a traditional container, you should be fine with that as the first stage. You could, theoretically, place the final of your multi right near your house if you wanted to.