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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > May > 10 > Entry
Editorial: Carillon’s big dreams blend past, future
If you think Dayton has gone about as far as it can to make use of local history, you will think again after hearing the plans of the people at Carillon Park. Those people are just beginning.
And they seem to have something.
They have, for one thing, a beautiful, ideally located site to deal with, right on the Great Miami River, off Interstate 75, south of downtown, at the northern edge of the Oakwood hills.
They already have enough history-related attractions to attract a local event a day.
But what they have is modest compared to what they want.
They’re talking about building an incline rail up to a hilltop park, offering a view of Dayton.
They want, too, to give people the experience of a canal trip, complete with a demonstration of how water levels are changed by man-made mechanisms to allow transportation between different bodies of water.
They want to take visitors up in a tethered version of a plane that was the only one the Wright brothers flew in together.
There’d also be a carousel on the theme of local inventions, a local trolley, a great big cash register for sliding in (something NCR probably should have added to its line long ago), a beer wagon highlighting a too-little noted aspect of local history, and more.
First in line will be an addition to the main building at the park, into which will be moved the actual Deeds Barn of legend (to preserve it from the elements). The addition would also have aspects of the old “Building 26,” the site of a crucial World War II code-breaking project.
This construction has already started, with $5.5 million on hand. (Half is from the state and half from contributors.)
The carillon itself — the vertical musical instrument that gives the site its identity — will be upgraded to allow for concerts even when there is not an actual person up there playing notes.
The money for the various additions and ugrades will come primarily from private contributions. The Carillon people aren’t saying how much their dreams will all cost. They are taking one step at a time, one project at a time. They’re not even launching a capital fundraising drive. But if you wanted to guess scores of millions of dollars, nobody could stop you from being conservative.
Some people worry about Dayton being more focused on its past than its future. But neither the Carillon people nor anybody else is suggesting that projects that celebrate the local past are a substitute for businesses and schools that are focused on the needs of the future.
It needs to be remembered just what about Dayton’s past is being celebrated: primarily its inventiveness. The airplane, the cash register, the car you don’t have to wind up, the community’s records for patents — all that and more.
That seems precisely the kind of historical park to have if you, as a community, want to attract people and companies that are part of the high-tech movement today. Those people will want to bring their children to a place like that.
The park is being designed so that they can keep doing that as the children grow, imparting new lessons each time.
In these difficult times, it’s good to see a Dayton institution growing, rather than downsizing. It’s good to see something on the move.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Local History, Martin Gottlieb
Comments
By MAC
May 10, 2009 2:09 AM | Link to this
A good idea IMO, but a larger indoor facility similar to COSI in Columbus would provide a year round attraction & probably bring in more outside visitors IMO? R they getting a good return for their investment $$; will it help the local economy?By davidss2
May 10, 2009 9:24 AM | Link to this
Here we go again. Money from the taxpayers to subsidize the arts or past. The taxpayer money better would be used to do something to improve Ohio education (not the Governors hat tricks of higher taxes later hoping for reelection before anyone with a brain figures out he hasn’t fixed education as promised) and to improve keeping businesses here. We have the Schuster and Victoria with tax subsidizes. How many jobs producing a product? Even the Schuster doesn’t pay its ushers—they are volunteers.By Emily
May 10, 2009 11:42 AM | Link to this
Davidss2: “The money for the various additions and ugrades will come primarily from private contributions.” While ‘primarily’ is an important word, I imagine that taxpayer money will have very little to do with it unless there’s state/federal grant money involved.By Davidss2
May 10, 2009 2:31 PM | Link to this
Look at the $5.5 million; half is TAXPAYER money from the STATE. Look at all the other things done around here, the state taxpayers subsidize all the nonproducing venues. Dragons—RTA money, STate money, I forget what other kinds of public funds were added.