Couple donate $1 million to help create park

SARASOTA COUNTY - When Jack and Thelma Urfer arrived here 40 years ago in their station wagon, pulling a horse trailer, there was lots of open land.

The couple settled in what was then the country, not far from Honore Avenue and Bee Ridge Road, where they built a life and a business selling cars.

On Wednesday, they gave the county $1 million to help turn one of the last large areas of green space into a public park. In addition they set up a charitable trust for park maintenance, operations and programs.

The Urfer Family Park, as the county plans to name it, will be the "central hub" of Sarasota's recreational and trail system, said John McCarthy, general manager for Sarasota County parks and recreation. The park at Bee Ridge and Honore will have trails that link to the Legacy Trail to the south.

Once Honore Avenue is completed it will link to Benderson Park in the Cooper Creek area to the north and to Colonial Oaks Park to the east.

The Urfers sold their BMW dealership on Clark Road this year. They still own the Land Rover dealership next door.

At the County Commission meeting, where commissioners announced the donation, Jack Urfer said he and his wife "love the country." He said they came from a small town in Kansas that did not offer a family park and so would have to travel to another town just to visit a park.

The 50-acre park has been a long time in the making.

County Commissioner Nora Patterson contacted the Wilson family, who owned a cow pasture at Bee Ridge and Honore, early this decade to persuade them to sell their land to the county for a park. Patterson also urged the Urfers to meet with park officials about donating money for the park.

The county bought the land in 2002 and began working on design, engineering and permitting.

Since then they have added the 98-year-old home owned by Dr. C.B. Wilson, who was one of the area's first doctors and the owner of the first automobile in the city, which was purchased in 1909.

The historic home -- one of the first concrete homes built in Sarasota -- will serve as offices and an educational center for the park and the county trails.

The Urfers' money will go toward playground equipment, picnic shelters, more trees and more trails. When the park is completed it will include picnic pavilions, separate playgrounds for toddlers and older children, a boardwalk and lookout tower.

The Urfers said in a letter to the county that they were interested in giving to the park because it seems "to be a place for people from the community to come and enjoy rest, relaxation, the beauty of nature and experience inner joy and solace. In short, a park that we truly feel embodies the spirit of what we desire to give back to the community."