People are stopping our staff while they’re out there mowing and telling them, “This is the best this lake’s ever looked.”

– Park Director Greg Ruark

Recent treatment of the lake at Jaycee Park for algae and duckweed has received rave reviews, the Greencastle Park Board was told at its September meeting.

“The lake is completely different,” Park Director Greg Ruark said, indicating it is algae- and duckweed-free for the first time in years.

“People are stopping our staff while they’re out there mowing and telling them, ‘This is the best this lake’s ever looked.’”

The $2,400 chemical treatment, administered by Shane Floyd, director of Hanum Wagle and Cline’s (HWC) Water and Land Resources division, is just the first step toward revitalization of Jaycee Park, a 22-acre property that sits outside city limits along the back side of Putnam County Regional Airport.

HWC would like to treat the lake 10 times a year at a cost of $800 a month, Ruark said, adding that there was no urgency to make an immediate decision on that idea.

Starting the monthly treatments next March would be an ideal timetable, Ruark added.

The lake was treated four times during July, Ruark said, and “at the end of the first week you could tell a difference,” he noted.

The Jaycee Park lake “hadn’t been treated since I’ve been here,” added Assistant Director Chrysta Snellenberger, who joined the Parks and Recreation Department in 2019.