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Austintown aces accommodating all ages
AUSTINTOWN
Austintown Township Park will ace accommodating all ages with a new disc golf course.
Disc golf as a sport is a lot like golf with differently weighted frisbees, different golf clubs, and baskets instead of holes.
Park Supervisor Todd Shaffer said the course will be unique not only to Austintown but also to the Mahoning County area.
The idea originated from Austintown resident Raymond Penny, 21, who tossed around plans with Shaffer.
Penny said he and his friends were looking for somewhere to play that was closer than the Young’s Run course, 547 Highway 1321, in Champion.
“I played for almost a year, and my friends have been playing for two or three,” Penny said. “I just wanted a local place where disc golfers could get together and have a fun time.”
Together the two laid out an 18-hole, 5.301-foot course equipped with signs and metal baskets.
The cost, he said, is just under $2,500, but costing the parks department $850 for the metal baskets made by Austintown Metal Works, 45 Victoria Road.
The rest of the cost, for the signs for the course, was paid for by a grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation for signage for the township.
Shaffer said between the playground and splashpad for children, tennis courts for adults and pickleball courts for senior citizens, the park was missing an attraction for college-age people.
“This seems to be real popular with that age demographic,” he said.
It is his goal to be able to provide activities at the park for all ages for the sake of serving all tax-paying residents.
“If you want people to come out here, you have to give them a reason,” Shaffer said.
He said he hopes to have the course finished before the ground freezes, but definitely expects it to be completed by the spring.
“I’m really excited to see how the community responds to it and hope they really enjoy the course,” Penny said.