The Friends of Valerie Woods was organized with the purpose of working together as a community to protect and preserve the 101-acre parcel of land located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Turner Rd. and Philadelphia Dr. This land, which has come to be known as Valerie Woods, was purchased by the Harrison Township Trustees in November of 1998 for the purpose of building a new fire station and to subdivide and sell off the remainder of the property for commercial development. While the Friends Of Valerie Woods does not oppose the building of a new fire station, we do oppose any development that presents a risk to the delicate ecosystem of this beautiful piece of land. Specifically, our goals include:

• Minimizing the amount of land consumed to build the new fire station, and restricting the site of the new station to an area that will minimize the damage to the property. We therefore recommend that the fire station be built on the northwest corner of the property, which would eliminate any danger to the wetlands, the old growth forest, and the waterfalls.
• Preventing any further development of the property. We strongly oppose subdividing the property up and selling it off for development purposes.
• Preserving the property in a way that can be enjoyed by the entire community. We would ultimately like to see this property turned into a nature preserve/hiking trail. This would make Valerie Woods an extremly attractive asset to our community and to the entire Dayton area as a whole.
• Opening up the property for use by area schools, to provide an outdoor nature/science lab. Doing so would strongly improve the educational development of our area students, while teaching them the importance of greenspace and giving them a new-found appreciation of nature.