By Charlotte Caldwell

[email protected]

SIDNEY – Sidney’s Parks and Recreation Department conducted an open house and public forum at the Senior Center of Sidney-Shelby County to review preliminary findings and recommendations for the department’s master plan on March 8.

The department has been working with OHM and PROS Consulting Inc. since June of 2022 to “establish a long-range plan that helps ensure that resources are used effectively, and priorities are based on the greatest community benefit.” Another public forum was held on Oct. 4, 2022, to evaluate the needs and aspirations of the community for the department.

According to Rick Fay of OHM, the consultants launched an online survey in October to which about 640 people responded. Fay discussed the results of the survey and the demographics at the open house.

60% of the respondents to the survey lived with children, 77% had children under 10 years old, and 82% had two or more children. Respondents most preferred trails and bike paths (79%), playgrounds (66%), passive open spaces (58%), and active recreation (45%), and 52.7% of respondents visited the parks weekly with Tawawa Park visited the most.

Respondents would like to see the development of a community garden, more restrooms, an ice skating rink, dog parks, a splash pad, a fitness circuit and adventure activities like rock climbing. 75% would like to see the parks host more music and art events, and 25% would like more sports activities and festivals.

The results mentioned specific program suggestions from respondents. Sports included pickleball, an obstacle course, pool and staff improvements, accessible play, kayaking, and a skate/bike park. Nature included guided nature hikes, birding, camping and a lecture series. Life skills included personal finance management classes, art classes and outdoor safety education. Events included movie nights, concerts, community nights including food trucks and a field day for kids.

The survey asked participants if they feel safe in the parks, and 10% said they feel unsafe due to drug use, homelessness, isolated areas with strangers, lack of patrol presence and emergency call boxes and poor cell phone service.

Participants mentioned some barriers to participating in parks events, like conflicting work and school schedules, lack of information, limited accessibility, no fenced-in playgrounds, and issues with the pool being closed and lack of rule enforcement.

The survey results included information about the pool specifically. 67% of respondents reported never visiting or only visiting the pool once per season, and the reasons were crowds, inconsistent hours/staffing, the cost, lack of rule enforcement and no amenities for babies or seniors. Suggestions for improvement were better hours and more staff/lifeguards, a splash pad, warm water for small kids, furnishings, more shady areas, and designated member-only times.

The consulting firm presented areas for the department to improve, including developing additional programming for youth, families and seniors; ensuring sustainable programming (subsidy v. fees and charges); monitoring economic impacts and making adjustments as necessary; redesigning the department web page within the current framework; developing a formal volunteer and recognition program and continuing to partner with organizations on social needs and developing new partnerships.

The firm also provided a list of current funding sources the department uses and funding opportunities to explore, like grants, external and capital funding sources, user fees and franchise/licenses.

“We go into a lot of communities, but we don’t see a long list of grants that have been utilized to help fund the system. They’ve done a really good job at that, but it’s also at a point where that type of funding comes with a little bit more work, reporting, and you want to make sure that you balance out what you’re receiving as far as the grants and what you can do with that and how much work is required by the staff in order to report out and finalize that entire grant, so you want to do a cost-benefit ratio analysis just to make sure that they’re not getting in over their heads as far as some of these grants,” Fay said.

Finally, the presentation highlighted the 2023 proposed goals for the parks department. These were:

• Utilize the Miami River corridor;

• Extend the non-motorized transportation links between parks and connect neighborhoods to parks;

• Provide parkland within a 1/2 mile walk of every city resident;

• Maintain existing parkland and facilities to a high standard;

• Provide and promote high-quality programs and education to all generations that foster nature awareness, fitness, life skills and community cohesion;

• Provide and promote a variety of multi-generational amenities and facilities for play, fitness, active and passive recreation;

• Incorporate a variety of funding tools to maintain and enhance the parks system;

• Utilize the parks system in support of city economic development and town planning initiatives.

The next steps for the plan are for the consultants to finalize recommendations based on this public forum, hold another public forum in April or May to present the final draft, and have the Recreation Board and City Council vote on approving it in June.