The west side of Ottawa has a new public park.
The city Tuesday officially closed on the purchase of the formerly-private Thornton Park. The city is getting eight acres with Edmund Thornton donating the four acres the park is on and the city paying $400,000 for roughly four acres covering the park’s office building and parking lot along with empty land west of Boyce Memorial Drive.
The city is using money from an Enterprise Zone fund to buy the land. Mayor Bob Eschbach says the city could decide to make it all park space or look to develop some of it.
As part of the agreement the city will keep the Thornton Park name.