FOREST PARK - Melvin and Peg Williams have called Forest Park home even before there was a Forest Park.

        Once part of a 10,000-acre government-owned tract that included Winton Woods Park and the Village of Greenhills - slated to become a model city — Forest Park incorporated as a village 40 years ago. It became Ohio's 200th community to do so.

        The city will celebrate that milestone today with several events, beginning with a 9 a.m. parade to open the youth baseball/softball season. Marchers will meet at Waycross Elementary and proceed to Kemper Road's Central Park. At 11 a.m. city hall will open with historic displays, tours of the police and fire departments, and a chance for people to talk with department heads and council members.

IF YOU GO

What: Forest Park 40th anniversary celebration    When: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today, City Hall, 1201 W. Kemper Road    Highlights: Police department tours,11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m; fire department tours, noon and 1 p.m.; Council vs. city employees softball game, 3 p.m., Central Park.

        “We were in the first section to be developed that included Carnegie, Carlsbad and Cascade,” Mr. Williams said. “There were 110 houses. We were to be a planned community, one of three in the nation.”

        The early master plan developed in the 1950s for that model city guided Forest Park's development, first under Marvin Warner and Joe Kanter. Concepts from that early plan are still being used today, said City Manager Ray Hodges.

        “We can't allow our community to be stagnant. We have to keep growing, redeveloping and reusing our facilities,” Mr. Hodges said. “We're big enough to offer full services but not so big that we can't solve issues person-to -person.”

        The community's central location and planned development first drew the Williamses and others as they watched it evolve from part of Springfield Township to the village of Forest Park and finally city status in 1968.

        Former councilman and mayor Brandon Wiers came to the village in 1964, and likes the way the city is evolving.

        He said he's proud of the city's integration; Forest Park has about 36 percent white residents and 56 percent African-American.

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