NEWARK, Ohio — Megan Wood, the Executive Director and CEO of Ohio History Connection, has been with the organization for 15 years.
“To make the site open to the public. That has been our goal,” said Wood.
Wood said the Ohio Supreme Court decision stating Ohio History Connection can move forward with terminating the Moundbuilders Country Club lease is a positive first step in the process of establishing the Earthworks as a public park.
“We know that it’s going to take many years. We want to work with the community. We want to work with American Indian Tribal Nations and what this looks like as we move into the future. So the site will progress over time,” says Wood.
The Ohio History Connection owns the site and the Moundbuilders Country Club has leased the property since 1910.
The court ruled 6 to 1 that the Ohio History Connection can end the lease, which was set to expire in 2078.
“Disappointment certainly among the membership. Understand this has been a four-year-long process,” said David Kratoville, Board of Trustees President for the Moundbuilders Country Club.
Kratoville is one of 375 country club members and 100 employees from Licking County working at the one-of-a-kind golf course.
While a future jury will decide an amount of money the Moundbuilders Country Club will receive from the Ohio History Connection, Kratoville said it’s unlikely the golf course can be replicated.
“Our options to re-constitute the club in another location are very limited if they exist at all. And we’ll start the biggest limitation right from the get-go, is money. The Ohio History Connection has never offered us enough money to relocate somewhere else,” said Kratoville.
Kratoville believes a move and recreating the course could cost upwards of $25 million.
He’s disappointed the Ohio History Connection won’t be honoring the terms of its long-term lease and says the state’s original eminent domain compensation proposal from 2019 isn’t nearly enough.
“They’re taking away or want to take away 56 years of remaining use, all the buildings and improvements we’ve made to this property and their last offer was $1.67 million, completely inadequate,” said Kratoville.
For Wood and the Ohio History Connection, they’re now focused on the Earthworks nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage List. A final decision will be made next summer.
That designation would solidify the Earthworks’ significance across the globe and to human history.
But until then, in the months that follow, the organization has several goals to fulfill.
“Our goal is for them to receive just compensation for their time on the site. But our goal is ultimately thinking of the very long future and also the very long past of the site, making it publicly accessible and honoring really what the more sacred use of it would be,” said Wood.
The compensation for the Moundbuilders Country Club will be decided by a jury in the Licking County Court of Common Pleas at a date to be determined.
