1978 - Chandler Park Is Being Restored From Presque Isle County Advance and Onaway Outlook July 19, 2018

  
CAPTION: Chandler Park was being reclaimed from encroaching woods at the northwest
boundary in 1978.  Given to the city by Merritt Chandler, the father of Onaway, the
facility had been the site of thousands of picnics since the turn of the century.  
The park had so many trees children could travel from one end of the area to the other
without leaving their branches.  But then Duch elm disease struck and most of the trees
died.  In the mid 1960s, efforts were made to improve the park by the addition of swings
and slides, grills and toilet facilities.  But vandalism raised the cost of maintenance to 
the point that the city could no longer afford park upkeep.  In 1978, brush and weeds took 
over the park.  A federal program, the Summer Program, for economically disadvantaged youth, 
made a number of young people available for work projects in Onaway.   


From the The Presque Isle County Advance July 19, 2018, page 7B. 


Retyped by J. Anderson