Jamestown Parks and Recreation working on short-term priorities of plan

Yahoo

30-03-2025

Mar. 29—JAMESTOWN — The Jamestown Parks and Recreation District has started working on priority action items in its Comprehensive Parks Plan, said Amy Walters, executive director of the Jamestown Parks and Recreation District.
There are 25 items on the short-term list, which are targeted to be completed in five years or less.
The Jamestown Parks and Recreation Commission approved the Comprehensive Parks Plan in August. The plan sets the course for the district for the next 10 years, "serving as a long-term strategic road map for creating a high-quality park experience that is relevant, inclusive, iconic and sustainable," according to the plan. It includes short-, mid- and long-term goals.
According to the document, the plan was created for the improvement, growth and sustainability of the community park system and represents the public's vision for the park system along with its priorities and needs.
Community input was a significant part of the process, Walters said, and included online comments, surveys, focus groups and town hall meetings. Also included was an inventory of the district's assets, properties, programs and services and the community demographic, she said.
The Jamestown Parks and Recreation Commission approved the "annual work plan" in January. Walters said each month they will update the annual work plan with the status of the items, report to the board and update the community with a planned webpage on its website, jamestownparksandrec.com.
Walters also said a feasibility study for an outdoor swimming pool, a top priority for the community determined through the Comprehensive Parks Plan process, will happen sooner than later.
"The plan had been identified for it to be a mid-term, so a five- to nine-year (action item) and ... I feel like what we heard from the community is they want it sooner than later and so I felt like it was just too important to not get started on right away," she said.
Walters said health and safety items will be the first to be addressed in short-term priorities.
"We want to make sure we're keeping everyone healthy and safe when they're using our facilities through our programs, so that will be our first and top priority," Walters said. "And then, in this first year, a lot of it is kind of continuing with the learning more and planning, whether it's feasibility studies or continuing to develop asset inventories and things like that that we started ... and came about out of the comprehensive plan.
"Now that we have that comprehensive planning process, we now have the structure that our team will be looking to utilize to kind of build our internal capacity," she said. "So the community might not see a lot in the first year, but there's going to be a lot going on behind the scenes."
The Jamestown Parks and Recreation District has playground equipment in eight of its 11 parks. Parks and Rec will be removing playground equipment this year that is noncompliant with national safety standards, Walters said.
"The most immediate concerns are fall heights," she said. "So if there's the ability for a child to fall a certain distance, what is the surface below, (it) needs to be a certain depth, absorption, those types of things."
Another concern is any type of equipment that could result in entrapment. Equipment that is damaged and beyond its usable lifespan will also be removed, she said.
Walters said the parks do not have a lot of equipment with those safety concerns.
"We're just not pulling things out to pull things out," she added. "If there's the ability for us to repair, we will do that. It's just from our standpoint, if something is deemed unsafe, we will take it out."
They won't be able to replace all of the removed equipment immediately due to cost, she added, so they will put a plan in place based upon the public's priorities, not only for the immediate future but long term as well.
"So if the projected lifespan is 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, what does that look like, so that we don't have all of our equipment coming due at the same time," Walters said. "How do we create kind of a sustainable plan to continue to maintain and update equipment over time."
Replacing all playground fall surfacing is also a priority but it won't be accomplished in one year, she said. They are creating a plan to determine what they will need and begin budgeting for that over a period of time.
A project to revamp Nickeus Park is expected this year and Walters expects the next priority playground project will be in McElroy Park.
"We just know that there's a lot of traffic in that park (McElroy)," she said. "We have the largest shelter (there), so it's used and rented the most by community members and organizations so that likely will be kind of our next priority when we're looking at equipment."
Jamestown Parks and Recreation will be working on other projects as well.
"What we heard from the community is parks and playgrounds (are the priorities)," Walters said. "We also heard pathways and trails, so we will be actively involved in working whether it be with the city of Jamestown or Stutsman County or those other entities on what we can do to continue to improve the what we call active transportation of the community — whether that's walking, biking — again, it might not be something that people will see right away but we will continue to be involved in that."
She said they will also be looking into programming, another issue that came from the assessment of the district's facilities and programs. Walters said they rated weak in offering senior programs, so that issue will be explored.
"What opportunities do we have to either partner with other organizations that are already doing it or is there something that isn't being offered that we could step in and do that ... ," she said.
To keep the public informed on issues, construction and other topics, Jamestown Parks and Recreation will be adding a webpage to its website for that purpose. It is a way to improve the district's communications with the community, Walters said.
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(5 years or less)
* Replace all playground fall surfacing with engineered wood fiber, poured rubber or other IPEMA-certified fall attenuation material.
* Remove and replace failed, non-compliant or high-risk play equipment (structures and freestanding).
* Develop site-specific master plans for each developed and undeveloped park property.
* Adopt NRPA Park Classifications and develop district facility planning and design guidelines standards
* Develop line-item budgets for each functional area of work.
* Continue to provide and enhance services in the existing core program areas
* Evaluate program offerings within each core program area annually (and the core program areas themselves).
* Update the age segment analysis for programs annually and further segment the Senior (65+) category into 54 to 74 and 75+.
* Implement monitoring and tracking for programs in the mature stage for signs of saturation and decline.
* Review and evaluate programs in the saturation and decline stages for repositioning or elimination.
* Conduct a lifecycle review of the program portfolio annually.
* Construct walkways to (and around) activity areas in parks.
* Provide accessible/inclusive structures that connect to walkways.
* Develop park-specific design standards for pathways and trails.
* Add comfort amenities such as benches, water fountains, distance markers, small shade structures, etc., along pathways.
* Employ "tactical urbanism" principles to separate conflicting uses in the park circulation system.
* Add clear signage and roadway markings to delineate traffic circulation in McElroy Park, Nucleus Park and Klaus Park.
* Develop a "parkland dedication worksheet."
* Use relatable language in all communications materials.
* Develop a webpage to communicate information about park improvement initiatives, budgeting and decision making.
* Develop a "Go/No-Go" process for parkland acquisition and community-initiated special projects.
* Develop program assessment and evaluation tools.
* Develop tool to track customer satisfaction and retention.