Park Board Holds Community Meeting to Review Master Plan
Posted
Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw Park Board held a public meeting to review its five-year master plan for park services Tuesday night.
The community was previously mailed surveys asking questions about park facilities, recreation programs, park funding, park maintenance, and park services.
The parks department used that input to create a master plan that identified years the projects could be targeted for completion.
Pat Brown, Site Scapes Inc., Mishawaka, the company the park department hired to put together a master plan for the parks for 2012-2016, presented a draft of the master plan Tuesday night.
Brown presented the draft to the community during a meeting at Center Lake Pavilion.
Those who did not attend the meeting can view the master plan draft at the Warsaw park office, 117 E. Canal St., Mondays through Fridays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuesday night’s meeting was the third public meeting that has been held to discuss the master plan. There were meetings previously in February and March.
The master plan draft will be submitted by Brown to the Department of Natural Resources today. Warsaw city officials and the community also will have the opportunity to review the master plan draft and provide input.
The park board at its October meeting will review comments from the DNR, city officials, and community, and make changes to the master plan as needed.
Plans are for the park board to adopt the master plan in November. The board has until April 15 to adopt a final master plan.
Brown said the focus of the master plan is to maintain and improve resources the parks department has.
Expanding recreational programs also is a component of the master plan.
The following recommendations were suggested including expanding private and public partnerships to enhance recreational programs, and soliciting input from teens to identify specific programs that would interest them.
A suggestion also was to expand and improve the use of the parks department’s web site for program announcements and evaluations.
Another recommendation was continuing outdoor concerts, special events and festivals and expanding programming for elementary-age school children.
Park facility priorities include developing a canoe and kayak rental and launch site, establishing ice skating areas, developing a splash pad, and additional picnic sites and shelters.
Another component of the master plan is to become more involved with the development of the Lake City Greenway working on developing and implementing trails within Warsaw.
Other components are searching for funding opportunities for trails and greenway development, and conducting review of the Lake City Greenway for opportunities to connect to city park sites.
For a land acquisition goal, a suggestion was to acquire more than 20 acres for a new community park.
The master plan also suggested considering the possibility of land acquisition for development of neighborhood parks on the east and north sides of Warsaw.
A key issue identified in the public meetings and written survey was additional and improved recreational programming. It is recommended that a year-round part-time recreation and activities and administrative position be filled.
The board reviewed priority projects for 2012-2016.
For 2012, large-dollar projects include hiring for the year-round part-time recreation and activities and administrative position.
Another priority for 2012 is removing older play equipment on the beach and installing new playground equipment with a safety cushion on the lawn next to the beach at Pike Lake Park.
Some of the priorities for 2013 are replacing the restroom building at Beyer Park, updating the park sign on Detroit Street with an electronic message board at Central Park, defining a walkway from Pike Lake campground to the Lake City Greenway at Pike Lake Campground, and establishing shoreline restoration at Nye Park.
Some of the 2014 priorities include replacing rubber safety tiles under the play equipment at Kiddieland Park, constructing restrooms on the south side of the building accessible from the outdoors at Boggs Activity Building, and upgrading the part-time position to full time for an assistant activities director if needed.
Priorities for 2015 include developing a water splash pad in the community, and replacing the restroom building at Richardson-Dubois Park.
Priorities in 2016 are paving the lower parking lot at Lucerne Park, and constructing a restroom facility at Hire Park.
