The deeds in kind: a third of an acre, whole

ROW #564 · LEG 83 ITEM 10 · DUG (the documented deed) / TESTED NEGATIVE (archive; mansion)

The build's one deed in kind stands in the county parks board's own public papers, and it is carried here at the papers' full size — which is the right size for the best-documented gift in this entire leg. On September 16, 2025, the St. Joseph County Parks Board met at Ferrettie/Baugo Creek County Park in Osceola (no quorum; informational session only, no action taken) and heard the item: Carl Strefling and his son Scott Strefling had approached the Parks Department offering to donate a 0.34-acre parcel of land adjacent to Ferrettie/Baugo Creek County Park; the board attorney confirmed the donation could legally be accepted although the parcel lies in Elkhart County, real estate of a political subdivision being tax-exempt regardless of county lines, and staff recommended accepting "this generous offer." The item returned on the board's October 21, 2025 meeting notice at Spicer Lake. The park the gift enlarges: 214 acres on Ash Road in Osceola, opened to the public in 1987, grown by Parks Board acquisitions and Commissioner Henry Ferrettie's efforts from late-1970s purchases that included the former Mishawaka municipal dump — about 20 acres of the present park reclaimed landfill, its Lake Osceola dug as a water feature. No value for the 0.34 acre is published in the papers reached, and none is printed: value unpublished. The pattern's other two forms were tested: a company's archive or memory given whole — none documented for any Osceola firm; a mansion given wholeBoth print TESTED NEGATIVE.

Closure: MIXED — the land deed DUG whole; archive and mansion forms TESTED NEGATIVE. Note for assembly: the banked Parks tells this gift as accepted toward the park in its October 2025 papers; the board papers read in this run show the September session taking no action for want of a quorum, with the item noticed again October 21. The two tellings are compatible — acceptance after September — and no contradiction is asserted here; the dates above are the papers' own.

Sources:

1. St. Joseph County Parks Board, meeting papers of September 16, 2025 and meeting notice of October 21, 2025 (sjcindiana.gov) — the Strefling offer, 0.34 acre, Elkhart County situs, staff recommendation.
2. St. Joseph County Parks (sjcparks.org) — Ferrettie/Baugo Creek: 214 acres; opened 1987; land acquisition from the late 1970s; Ferrettie efforts; landfill reclamation.
3. Banked Parks (Osceola build) — the gift as banked, October 2025 papers.