County Parks Board Works On 5-Year Master Plan Vision & Mission Statements
October 20, 2022 at 11:18 p.m.
County Parks Board Works On 5-Year Master Plan Vision & Mission Statements
By David [email protected]
The result was a vision statement that was about 85% finished and five suggestions for a mission statement. The Board and committee will continue to consider both through emailed comments and at their 1 p.m. Nov. 17 public meeting.
The preliminary vision statement is: “Kosciusko County will be a leader in creating an interconnected network of communities, resources and experiences focused on vibrant recreational opportunities, intentional growth and stewardship.”
Due to the meeting going over two hours, a preliminary mission statement was not agreed upon by the Board and steering committee.
Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG) is helping with the development of the master plan at no cost. The Parks Board approved a memorandum of understanding between the Board and MACOG at their September meeting.
Donny Ritsema, senior community development planner with MACOG, explained the process of the five-year master plan and led the discussion Thursday for the vision and mission statements.
Looking at the timeline over the next few months, Ritsema said the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ guidelines for putting together a park master plan have a changed first-draft due date of Nov. 15, moved back from January, to allow communities to have more time to put together the second draft after comments have come back in from the state on the first draft. It also gives the state more time to review the first draft.
What needs to be included in the first draft - which MACOG will actually be writing - are the definition of the planning area, or scope of work; vision and mission statements; existing conditions summary; ADA accessibility; and some public participation. Ritsema said he and Sofia Gladun, also a senior community development planner with MACOG, are collecting some information from various sources like the Census and interviews with stakeholders.
“We would still like to issue a short input survey to kind of get more specific to residents’ aspirations, what their visions (are), how they would imagine what kind of parks they would like to see in the county, maybe potentially recommend where trails could be located,” he said.
For the second draft, there will be another form of public participation, whether that be a survey, pop-up event or more.
Parks Board member Mike Cusick asked if Thursday’s meeting counted as some public participation and Ritsema said it does.
As an exercise for the vision statement, the Board and committee were asked to answer three questions on postcards: What is your grand vision of a Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation System? What is going on today that is working to achieve your grand vision? What barriers exist today preventing you from achieving your grand vision?
After what everyone wrote was summarized, the Board and committee broke up into five groups with one Board member per group to come up with vision and mission statements.
The five vision statements that the groups came up with were then discussed to come up with one preliminary vision statement. The same process was repeated for the mission statement but because it was after 3 p.m., a preliminary final mission statement was not agreed upon.
After Ritsema read all of the mission statement drafts, Stephanie Overbey, of Kosciusko County Community Foundation, said, “My question on the mission statement side is not which amenities, whether it’s blueways or trails, but what is the role of this Parks Board in them? Is it to help find funding? Is to provide some central location for all communications and some sort of mapping for things? So, I don’t know if that’s appropriate for a mission (statement) or not, but I think that’s the clarity I’m looking for, is what is the role of this Parks Department when it comes to trails, parks, blueways? What is our goal? Is it connecting, is it building, is it helping find funding, is it organizing? What is it?”
Board President Rob Bishop said that was a very good question. “I tend to think the answer is all of the above, is what we sort of think probably at this point in time,” he said.
Cusick said he looked up the difference between a vision and a mission statement online. A vision is the “why?” while a mission is the “what?” and “how?”
“So, honestly, I think you bring up good points because I think those are encompassed in the what and the how,” Cusick said.
Bishop said he looked back at when Commissioner Cary Groninger talked to the Board at their first meeting in August. “He talked about getting the grants. He talked about connecting the communities, so I think it really is the financing, the finding, the building. It’s everything we’re looking for at this point in time,” Bishop said.
In other business, Park Board member Aggie Sweeney reported on her and Cusick’s work with Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program (HELP) Community Coordinator Amy Roe on completing project worksheets, as Roe requested at the Parks Board’s September meeting. The worksheets are “essentially a pre-application” for some of the HELP funding that came from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, Sweeney said.
Sweeney said they submitted three worksheets.
“And those worksheets need to meet certain criteria of the program. And some of that criteria includes being in an area for some of the funding that meets the low- and moderate-level income guidelines,” she said.
The three projects they submitted worksheets for included an extension of the Chinworth Trail by about three-fourths of a mile to about where Crazy Eggs is located; the creation of a master plan for greenways and blueways for the county that goes beyond the specificity of the Board’s five-year master plan; and a project along James Lake to allow access for non-motorized water transportation such as kayaks and canoes.
She said, to her understanding, the County Commissioners and Council will meet sometime before the end of the year to review all of the worksheets submitted and set priorities for funding.
The result was a vision statement that was about 85% finished and five suggestions for a mission statement. The Board and committee will continue to consider both through emailed comments and at their 1 p.m. Nov. 17 public meeting.
The preliminary vision statement is: “Kosciusko County will be a leader in creating an interconnected network of communities, resources and experiences focused on vibrant recreational opportunities, intentional growth and stewardship.”
Due to the meeting going over two hours, a preliminary mission statement was not agreed upon by the Board and steering committee.
Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG) is helping with the development of the master plan at no cost. The Parks Board approved a memorandum of understanding between the Board and MACOG at their September meeting.
Donny Ritsema, senior community development planner with MACOG, explained the process of the five-year master plan and led the discussion Thursday for the vision and mission statements.
Looking at the timeline over the next few months, Ritsema said the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ guidelines for putting together a park master plan have a changed first-draft due date of Nov. 15, moved back from January, to allow communities to have more time to put together the second draft after comments have come back in from the state on the first draft. It also gives the state more time to review the first draft.
What needs to be included in the first draft - which MACOG will actually be writing - are the definition of the planning area, or scope of work; vision and mission statements; existing conditions summary; ADA accessibility; and some public participation. Ritsema said he and Sofia Gladun, also a senior community development planner with MACOG, are collecting some information from various sources like the Census and interviews with stakeholders.
“We would still like to issue a short input survey to kind of get more specific to residents’ aspirations, what their visions (are), how they would imagine what kind of parks they would like to see in the county, maybe potentially recommend where trails could be located,” he said.
For the second draft, there will be another form of public participation, whether that be a survey, pop-up event or more.
Parks Board member Mike Cusick asked if Thursday’s meeting counted as some public participation and Ritsema said it does.
As an exercise for the vision statement, the Board and committee were asked to answer three questions on postcards: What is your grand vision of a Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation System? What is going on today that is working to achieve your grand vision? What barriers exist today preventing you from achieving your grand vision?
After what everyone wrote was summarized, the Board and committee broke up into five groups with one Board member per group to come up with vision and mission statements.
The five vision statements that the groups came up with were then discussed to come up with one preliminary vision statement. The same process was repeated for the mission statement but because it was after 3 p.m., a preliminary final mission statement was not agreed upon.
After Ritsema read all of the mission statement drafts, Stephanie Overbey, of Kosciusko County Community Foundation, said, “My question on the mission statement side is not which amenities, whether it’s blueways or trails, but what is the role of this Parks Board in them? Is it to help find funding? Is to provide some central location for all communications and some sort of mapping for things? So, I don’t know if that’s appropriate for a mission (statement) or not, but I think that’s the clarity I’m looking for, is what is the role of this Parks Department when it comes to trails, parks, blueways? What is our goal? Is it connecting, is it building, is it helping find funding, is it organizing? What is it?”
Board President Rob Bishop said that was a very good question. “I tend to think the answer is all of the above, is what we sort of think probably at this point in time,” he said.
Cusick said he looked up the difference between a vision and a mission statement online. A vision is the “why?” while a mission is the “what?” and “how?”
“So, honestly, I think you bring up good points because I think those are encompassed in the what and the how,” Cusick said.
Bishop said he looked back at when Commissioner Cary Groninger talked to the Board at their first meeting in August. “He talked about getting the grants. He talked about connecting the communities, so I think it really is the financing, the finding, the building. It’s everything we’re looking for at this point in time,” Bishop said.
In other business, Park Board member Aggie Sweeney reported on her and Cusick’s work with Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program (HELP) Community Coordinator Amy Roe on completing project worksheets, as Roe requested at the Parks Board’s September meeting. The worksheets are “essentially a pre-application” for some of the HELP funding that came from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, Sweeney said.
Sweeney said they submitted three worksheets.
“And those worksheets need to meet certain criteria of the program. And some of that criteria includes being in an area for some of the funding that meets the low- and moderate-level income guidelines,” she said.
The three projects they submitted worksheets for included an extension of the Chinworth Trail by about three-fourths of a mile to about where Crazy Eggs is located; the creation of a master plan for greenways and blueways for the county that goes beyond the specificity of the Board’s five-year master plan; and a project along James Lake to allow access for non-motorized water transportation such as kayaks and canoes.
She said, to her understanding, the County Commissioners and Council will meet sometime before the end of the year to review all of the worksheets submitted and set priorities for funding.
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