Christmas came early for the Jefferson Parks and Recreation Department with a sizable monetary gift.

JPRD Director Denny Hammen tells Raccoon Valley Radio they recently received a gift of more than $845,000 from the Rory Autenreith Trust. He says the trust was established in 1991, and continued to grow until the death of one of the family members in 2019. The trust was then split with the Greene County Medical Center, which received over $400,000. Hammen describes the unique story of the original intention of the trust. 

“It was established with the idea to be used for a community center for Jefferson. Which as most of us know at that time, the community center did not exist (in 1991). The community center came about in 1998. She had incredible foresight to see that this community would at some point had that community center (built). The trust then continued to grow. Had there not been a community center built, all of the trust would’ve gone to the medical center.”

Hammen notes a five-person committee with the parks and rec board has been established to determine how the money should be spent on the rec center.