Something about hearing about Parks and Rec's infusion of cash and how they plan to spend it makes me happy. Lincoln's parks haven't received much love these past few years, what with cutbacks in hours, mowing frequency, and so forth. And frankly some of those cuts were a good thing. (Does every square foot of parkland really need to be mowed like a golf course?) But boy, it was really starting to feel like Lincolnites didn't value their parks at all, and that bummed me out.
This year Parks and Rec received $1 million toward deferred projects. You can do quite a few things with $1 million. It won't completely cover outstanding maintenance projects -- we'll need another $2-3 million for that -- but it's a decent start.
The big question next year will be whether or not Lincolnites want to continue catching up, or if this one-time infusion really was just a one-time deal. I would like to see the catch-up continue, although perhaps we slow down the pace just a bit. I would also like to see Parks & Rec explore new revenue generation opportunities. I've long believed that we're missing out on some possibilities for things like park and bike path sponsorships. I don't want to get to the point where every park has a corporate name, but what if Pepsi painted a logo on the bike trail every half mile? Perhaps like a modern day Burma Shave ad campaign.
I'm curious to learn what Lincolnites think about the state of Parks and Rec right now. Are our parks and rec facilities a priority? How much is too much and how little is too little when it comes to recreational opportunities?
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I would concur. If we can have an “adopt a trail” program, I don’t see why we couldn’t have a similar program for parks. I think there could be 3 distinct possibilities: 1) Companies could sponsor parks. Let them donate the money or time to mow, clean them up, paint when necessary, etc. I would have no issues with subtle signage for the companies to announce their sponsorship. No big billboards or flashing lights. 2) Neighborhood associations. In my neighborhood, we pay an association dues. We have a city park. I am thinking the association could most likely afford to sponsor the park and keep it cleaned and maintained like they do the other common areas. Again, some smaller signage would be fine by me. 3) Individuals. If there are willing families/individuals with the werewithal to do it, why not?
I suppose there could even be a 4th option like churches or civic organizations.
I wouldn’t envision Holmes Lake Park (TM), brought to you by Wells Fargo(R), or anything like that. But the smaller neighborhood parks, and the trails that cut through those neighborhoods, wouldn’t be a bad way to go.
I’d love to see the city be able to take care of the big crown jewels like Holmes, Antelope, or whatever, and let others maintain the smaller stuff.
I’d love to see the dollars be able to go into repairing the myriad cracks and widening the older trails leading to Holmes Lake than just for mowing and not maintaining the weeds along those trails.
There are a lot of logical partnerships out there, waiting to be had.
What would Ron Swanson do??
Shut ‘em all down!
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