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New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 5:29 pm
by MyWifeSaidYes
While looking for a place to have a picnic this spring, I came across Smith Park in New Carlisle (between Springfield and Tipp City).

They have a rentable shelter house in Smith Park that is more of a cabin. By that I mean it has walls, doors and bathrooms.

It sure seems to meet the very definition of "primarily a shelter" and is even called the "Smith Park Shelter House" by the city.

It does have a No Guns sign on it...but I have not contacted the city about this...yet.

Why? Two reasons:

One, it's a new year and they haven't even sworn in their newly elected council members. That happens tomorrow (1/4/16) and I'm nice enough to let them get their feet under them before knocking them off balance.

Two, the city council actually MEETS IN THE SHELTER HOUSE !!

Does that meet the definition of "where employees of the government of this state or the political subdivision regularly are present" ??

I see a LOT of info that says elected public officials are not "employees". The ORC separates the terms with lines like, "public official OR employee of a political subdivision". And the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) AND the Civil Rights Act say that and elected official is NOT an employee.

Should I pursue this?

Re: New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 6:11 pm
by Brian D.
City council meetings often include paid administrators on the agenda, giving reports. (Service director, safety director, tax commissioner, police and fire chief etc.) That should clear up the "employee" thing for you.

Now, if they don't also hold court or jail convicts on that building you could spin the wheel on open carry if you're feeling sporty.

Re: New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2016 6:58 pm
by eye95
Well, meeting on a schedule of, say, once a month would meet the dictionary definition of "regular."

Re: New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 4:10 am
by AlanM
eye95 wrote:Well, meeting on a schedule of, say, once a month would meet the dictionary definition of "regular."
So would having their annual picnic there but I doubt if a judge (not in their pocket) would see it that way for a reason to not allow guns the other days of the year.

Re: New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 6:29 am
by MyWifeSaidYes
eye95-

Welcome to the OFCC forum. Good to see you again!

New Carlisle IS in your backyard, isn't it?

Re: New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:16 am
by Brian D.
Eye95, I think members must have at least 5 (or maybe it's 10) posts under their belts before being given access to the PM system.

Welcome, by the way.

Brian, one of your fellow county fair OC walkers in times past.

Re: New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:24 am
by concreteguy
Something else to consider about these public "structures" is how the state building code officials view the structure. Most barns at county fairs in my opinion should be classified as shelters given the lack of occupancy signage and not meeting certain fire codes.

Re: New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 11:29 am
by djthomas
Sounds like we've established that employees are regularly present, so one leg of the "is it a government facility?" question is satisfied. Now it's going to turn on whether this facility is used primarily as a shelter, because if it is, the fact that employees are regularly present is irrelevant. I would caution that the fact that the facility has Shelter in its name is probably immaterial because it will come down to the actual use case. Kind of like how in the UK the word House is often used to describe large governmental or business operations/facilities (e.g. Companies House), which is about as far as you can get from the traditional meaning of the word.

As an aside I'm yet to meet someone brave enough to carry concealed into a government run homeless shelter or animal shelter and try to claim it's legal. The word shelter can be applied in two distinct ways.

Re: New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2016 6:21 pm
by MyWifeSaidYes
I put this one on the back burner for a while, but I think it's time to check in with the city.

I've got some free time and a couple dollars for gas. Might just have to go for a drive tomorrow.

Re: New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2016 10:39 am
by MyWifeSaidYes
Well, I went for a drive today, but it wasn't to New Carlisle.

Had to go and meet my son by the side of the road and trade him my car for his broken car and ride back home with the tow truck driver.

So, he has my car and my wife has my truck. I'm now stuck at home with the two broken vehicles. Yay.

Re: New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2016 4:23 pm
by MyWifeSaidYes
MyWifeSaidYes wrote:I'm now stuck at home with the two broken vehicles.
So, my son gets to use his GF's car and brought my car back. After dropping him off at his GF's house, I thought I smelled hot antifreeze. Sure enough, halfway home the water temperature gauge spikes. I carry extra water for just such an occasion, but I thought I had fixed all the leaks after replacing the heater core earlier this year.

I top it off, put on the cap and wow, I find the significant rip in the lower radiator hose. Joy.

Parts acquired. Car is cooling off now. I MIGHT head out to New Carlisle tomorrow, but it will probably not happen 'til next week.

Re: New Carlisle - Smith Park Shelter House

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2016 8:44 pm
by MyWifeSaidYes
My son had time to spend with me running errands in Columbus on Friday, so New Carlisle is on next week's to-do list.

I waited until Friday morning to change the lower radiator hose because mornings have been very cool this week. We headed for Columbus, but I noticed the temperature gauge was running hotter than normal. I thought I might have a kink in the new hose, or some type of defect obstructing the hose.

We stopped to check on it at lunchtime and figured we would let the engine cool and check the coolant level. We had already stopped several times that morning, but this time we heard the hissing. The hissing sound a hole in our UPPER radiator hose makes. :evil:

I still had full water jugs in the car so we just played the "drive 10 miles and top off the radiator" game until we got to a car parts store that had our hose in stock.

Ran fine on Saturday.

Replaced electric radiator cooling fan motor tonight.

The weather forecast looks really nice for this week. Makes me want to go harass someone.