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The Paynesville City Council approved purchasing an approximately one-acre parcel from George and Shirley Cromwell at the council meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 9.

The parcel is in the corner of the woods section of the park and adjoins Old Lake Road and Koronis Park Road. Also in that corner is an undeveloped and unvacated road right of way. If that was vacated, both the city and the one-acre parcel would get an additional 33 feet, which would make the lot buildable, public works director Ron Mergen told the council.

Buying the lot was recommended by the city's park and tree committee. Their reasoning was that any building on the lot would be detrimental to the city park.

"It's narrow, but apparently you could build on it," said council member Harlan Beek, who also serves on the park committee.

The lot would require substantial fill to build, but this could be done, especially if property around the lake gets scarce enough, pointed out Mayor Jeff Thompson.

In addition to purchasing the one-acre lot, the council expressed interest in vacating the road properly, giving the city complete title to the park. "Probably, in hindsight, it should have been done a long time ago," said Beek.