The tiny nook known as Jefferson Street Mini-Park on the Downtown Square could be up for sale if someone is interested.

The subject came up for discussion at the Mexico Parks Board meeting last week. City Parks and Recreation Director Chad Shoemaker said an interested party recently approached the city’s economic development department about the availability of the lot.

“We’re getting our ducks in a row so that if economic development comes along with somebody we can act,” Shoemaker told board members.

Shoemaker said it was a commercial group who approached the city but if the property were to be for sale it would have to go through the legal process of bidding. 

“You’ll hear a lot more information before anything would happen,” Shoemaker said.

Shoemaker said replacing the square footage of the park wouldn’t be an issue but it’s not something the department would stand in the way of if someone did want to buy the park. The department doesn’t get a lot of use out of the park and it can be a hassle to maintain sometimes.

“It’s great for the downtown but it doesn’t really provide much in the parks’ purpose,” Shoemaker said. “It’s very limited with what we can do with it.”

Shoemaker raised the possibility of another city department wanting the space or another civic group taking it over and leasing it on a cheap agreement like the YMCA does with the city.

“It’s not a, ‘We’re looking to get rid of it,’ kind of thing,” Shoemaker said. “As long as we have it we’re going to continue to maintain it as a park.”

One use the park has received this year is the Recreation Department’s pop-up art in the park. Recently part of an art project was removed from the park and relocated to the courthouse grounds. The department put up a new sign last week asking the public not to disturb the art projects.