Parks: What's next?: Master plan lays out five-year priorities

Nov 10, 2008 (Kokomo Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- COSE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- When Kokomo residents listed a "new attraction" at Kokomo Beach as their top parks priority for the next five years, Kokomo parks superintendent John Martino had an instant idea.

Unfortunately, Martino's first impulse -- adding a Flow Rider surfing pool -- will probably remain a dream.

"That's super cool," Martino said. "I really wanted one. But I researched it, and the cheapest I could probably get one purchased and installed was about $1 million."

So it goes with the dream of bringing the real Kokomo closer to the imaginary tropical paradise in the Beach Boys' song.

That doesn't mean, however, that Kokomo might not see some significant new additions to the parks fairly soon.

This week, the city unveiled the first draft of a five-year master plan for the city parks, formed from the input of more than 400 area residents.

The 107-page document, which includes analyses of the possibilities of each of the city's 31 park spaces, is available online at the city's Web site.

Put together in conjunction with Rundell Ernstberger & Associates, a Muncie consulting firm, and experts from Indiana University's Parks Management program, the plan, when complete, will be a comprehensive blueprint for the city parks' future.

"It's amazing that three-quarters of people in our community use the park facilities or programs at least once a year," Martino said. "People in Kokomo view parks and recreation as a very important city department, and a very important service."

Perhaps not surprisingly, the residents who submitted surveys or came to the first master planning session this summer, saw the parks with the most amenities as the most important facilities.

Martino said he didn't observe too many surprises in the findings.

For instance, parks professionals know that water park attractions must typically be updated every few years to maintain the same attendance level.

And the Kokomo Board of Parks Commissioners has already had informal discussions of what might be next for the city's 7-year-old Kokomo Beach.

This year, concession prices were increased and passes made available to county residents in an attempt to increase attendance, but the weather didn't cooperate. The cool summer depressed attendance even further.

But the draft master plan doesn't shy away from the fact the city is in the midst of a serious cost-cutting period.

With the city's population having dropped more than 2 percent since the last census, and property tax reform a reality, Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight has already embarked on a number of austerity measures.

So forget a $1 million surfing wave pool. Martino is still trying to come up with $50,000 to light up the Jackson-Morrow Park walk path.

The future could demand the city pursue more ventures like the most recent phase of the Wildcat Walk of Excellence.

Although the past three parks superintendents, including Martino, spent close to five years to get the "downtown-to-Waterworks Park" stretch built, the amenity came courtesy of a state grant.

"Make no mistake, the amount of funding for the next two or three years is an issue. Things are not like they were," Martino said.

One distinct possibility is that the city could divest itself of some of its current parks, in order to focus resources on the most popular parks.

One of the study's findings was that the city has "no need" to increase its park acreage.

That finding doesn't bode well for advocates of turning the former Continental Steel property into a park, as was proposed during former Mayor Matt McKillip's tenure.

"First of all, we don't even own the property," Martino said.

"We have limited resources. There's some support for cutting some of the smaller parks to do better things with the 'more used' parks," he said.

In the survey, the pool, Jackson-Morrow and Highland Park had the most reported use.

Robbins Park, Westdale Park and Meridian Park came in at the bottom of the parks users' rankings.

Parks users were also asked what features they liked best at the parks.

"Natural areas," the pool, hiking/biking trails and playgrounds were the most popular attractions; baseball diamonds, football fields and horseshoe pits ranked lowest.

Most of those surveyed also indicated that given a choice, they felt the bulk of new amenities should be geared toward elementary-age children. The finding was interesting in part due to Kokomo's rapidly aging population.

Improving current park facilities and adding walking trails were ranked highest among more than a dozen choices offered for bettering the parks.

Adding more "flowers, water, lakes and plants" ranked dead last among those surveyed.

Poor restrooms, vandalism, discourteous park users and a lack of contiguous trails ranked as the biggest pet peeves among those surveyed.

"All of this just gives us a baseline on what we can actually accomplish through realistic funding levels," Martino said.

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