Approval Pending for Long-term Park/Rec Comprehensive Plan
By Brandi Makuski
Members of the Stevens Point Park Board on Wednesday will consider approving the final draft of the city’s long-term plan for local parks and outdoor recreation.
The draft was completed in December. If approved this week, the plan moves on for final consideration at the full City Council on Jan. 15.
The plan, according to Parks Director Tom Schrader, provides not only summary information on the community, but outlines features, amenities and deficiencies identified at city parks and outdoor recreation areas, along with future plans for both.
“We’ve had quite a bit of public input from the public,” Schrader said, adding over 400 surveys related to the plan were completed by city residents. “It was an impressive number.”
Schrader’s department mailed surveys to 30 random residents in each city district, based on the most recent voter registry, and offered the general public to participate by placing the survey on the city’s website. Comments and concerns were also taken by city officials during a public listening session held last June.
Initially developed in 1971, the plan has been updated and modified several times, Schrader said, and is intended to be a five-year guide for policy and financial improvements for park and rec areas through 2023.
The latest revisions began in May.
Among the plans include additional landscaping between the city garage and the natural setting at Bukolt Park; additional landscaping between rec features and residential areas at Goerke Park; replacing dead trees and installing channel improvements at Iverson Park, along with a possible inventory of flora and fauna located there; replacing outdated playground equipment at Morton Park; and acquiring the former Emerson Elementary School land, making it an official city park.
As described in the final draft, the changes would cost over $8 million over a five-year period.
Schrader said the city is also looking at how it operates Riverfront Rendezvous. To his surprise, he said, people largely only attend two of the three-day-long July 4th celebration.
“We always had one slow night [at Riverfront], and now I know why,” he said. “We’ve always done the fireworks on Sunday night because if we do them on Saturdays, nobody comes the next day.”
Schrader said there are no existing plans to make changes to the event, but it’s information that could change how the festival is operated in the future.
The survey results also showed a majority of voters would not object to a tax increase – provided the extra money went specifically to park improvements. The city currently has about 130 developed acres of its total 700 acres of parkland, he said, which is “right about in the middle” for communities of comparable size in the state.
The full plan can be found here.
The Park Board will meet at 6:30 PM on Jan. 3 inside the Community Room of the new Stevens Point Police Dept., 933 Michigan Avenue. The meeting is open to the public.