Owosso’s Parks and
Recreation Master Plan
First, let’s take a
short quiz about your parks:
1)
Where is Rudy DeMuth Field?
2)
How many acres are in the City Parks System? a)57; b)252; c)178,
or; d)405?
3) Is it Harmon
Patridge Park or Harmon Partridge Park?
4) Which park had
a zoo and a “trailer camp”?
5) Where was
Lincoln’s assassination announced to the town?
6) How deep is
Hopkins Lake?
Check for the
answers at the end of this flyer.
The City Planning
Commission has completed most if its work for a 2006 Parks and
Recreation Master Plan. The existing 1996 Plan is outdated and must
reflect the conditions that have changed since then. Decisions are to
be made on how much improvement can be expected in our city parks in the
current climate of financial restraint. Opportunities for advances do
arise and this plan must be in a freshened condition to guide decision
making. To show how plans work with the community, these are some of
the advances made in city parks since 1996:
1)
Complete “makeover” of Harmon Patridge Park
2) Resurfacing of Heritage Footbridge decking
3) Construction of walkway from Main Street to Heritage
Footbridge
at Curwood Castle Park
4) Forty-six acres purchased for the expansion of Collamer
Park
5) Playground development at Bentley Park
6) Comprehensive upgrade of softball diamonds at Bennett
Field
7) Irrigation, new gardens with lighted walkways at
Fayette Square
8) New well and hand pump at Collamer Park
9) Jerome Street riverwalk paving
10) Acquisition of ½ mile of river frontage along TSB
Railway—gift of the RR
11) Bicycle Underpass at Washington Street Bridge
12) Upgrade of ball diamonds and dugouts at Oakwood Avenue
diamonds
Most of these improvements have benefited from generous contributions
from service clubs, grant funds, hometown heroes, and corporate giving.
The plan set the course.
A larger view of the
plan sees a quality of life reflecting from park users. It leaves quite
an impression on one’s frame of mind to scan a set of photographs of
activity--a youngster swinging at a pitch (and the fever pitch of a
grandparent), bicycling the river trail, applauding a women’s chorus at
the amphitheater, fishing Hopkins Lake (winter too!), celebrating a
birthday at a pavilion in Bentley Park, playing pickup basketball
games. The images could fill these pages of our area residents at
leisure in the City’s open spaces.
The experience of working on a master plan
gives pause for reflection on the invigorating values of parks and
recreation. Consider these merits:
1) Stewardship of
the environment
2) Historical preservation
3) Healthy lifestyles
4) Enhancing real estate values
5) Attracting retirees
6) Combating youth idleness/providing support
7) Relieving stress
8) Attracting business
9) Attracting tourists
10) Gaining self-fulfillment in troubled times
Persuaded by these values, the Planning Commission developed a set of
goals for the new plan. These goals and the improvement recommendations
that follow have been bolstered with citizen surveys, study of
recreation standards and evaluation of deficiencies. Of the 17 goals in
the plan, these reflect the times as no previous plan has done:
Ø
To set
as the first priority, and to avoid an all too commonplace legacy of
neglect in municipal park systems—conduct: park maintenance, routine
repair of facilities, replacement of worn equipment, and a retrofit and
repositioning of our parks.
Ø
To
make incremental improvements for non-motorized transportation from
every Owosso neighborhood to every park and open space area through
pathways, dedicated lanes, bikeways, and the sidewalk system.
Ø
To
continue with the policy of regional access to parks with an ongoing
effort to gain regional involvement with the parks.
Ultimately the parks
plan takes into consideration many inputs—the goals, population,
surveys, climate, economy, natural resources and the like—and then
arrives at specific recommendations for a six-year time frame. While
the work is ongoing an emphatic, emerging emphasis is to make advances
in the linear park system of the city—trails within parks, and
connectors to parks.
The most significant
proposal is the loop park trail downtown from the Washington Street
Bridge to the Oakwood Avenue Bridge and back. With hearty reliance on
prospective Federal funding through the State of Michigan, this most
challenging construction project should be undertaken in the next few
years. Another trail of significance with plan support is to establish
an access route from Northwest Owosso across the river to Harmon
Patridge Park. To continue, Collamer Park’s one mile trail about the
lake will tack on an additional three miles of walking paths through
pristine natural areas. A sampling of other park improvements on the
horizon include:
1) another
“makeover”-this time at Curwood Castle Park.
2) a canoe launch at the end of Oakwood Street
3) a challenge grant to regional partners for maintenance
upgrades
of the James Miner River Walkway
4) three phases of landscaping at the soccer fields
5) a revised parking system at the Oakwood Avenue ball
diamonds
There is still time for residents to get involved in the park plan
development. The Planning Commission works on the plan every meeting
and foresees a public information and hearing at City Hall for its
February 27, 2006 meeting. If you have something to say about parks for
our consideration in the plan please e-mail your comments to:
www.ci.owosso.mi.us
And now the answers
to the quiz:
1) The
Oakwood Avenue ball diamonds
2) 252 acres
3) Harmon Patridge Park
4) Bentley Park
5) Fayette Square
6) Nobody knows, sorry
