PERRYVILLE PICNIC HAS HOME IN NEW PARK

The St. Vincent DePaul Parish Picnic, a summer event that has taken place every year for almost a century on the grounds of St. Mary of the Barrens Seminary in Perryville, will continue to be held on the seminary grounds through a recently announced plan.

That comes as great news to Perry Countians and people in neighboring counties who take in the picnic every year. When the Vincentians, the Catholic order that owns St. Mary of the Barrens Seminary and the 650 acres on which it sits, announced last year it planned to develop the acreage, it raised fears that the picnic would lose its home.

The Vincentians didn't want that to happen, so it made available to Perryville the 34-acre park in which the picnic is held adjacent to theseminary grounds. The park will be available to the community for 25 years under a $1-a-year lease agreement. A new, seven-member community parks association will oversee and maintain the park and its buildings. The park will be open not only for the parish picnic, but will also be available for other community events as well.

The Vincentians last June announced plans to develop the property surrounding the seminary with golf courses, a hotel, an outlet mall and other commercial buildings and residential development. The seminary itself, which sits on 55 acres, will remain intact. It was established in 1818 and closed in 1985 and now serves as a retirement home for members of the Vincentian order.

The offer by the Vincentians came with the realization that Perryville needs additional park space and that the community has put considerable money and effort over the years into developing the park for the picnic.

With the picnic marking its 97th year this summer, the gracious offer by the Vincentians assures that the picnic will go uninterrupted well past its centennial year. Perryville will be able to continue to celebrate the picnic and still look forward to the benefits ahead when the seminary property is developed by the Vincentians.