Proposed 10-year plan roadmap for park and recreation improvements
The direction of Rotterdam’s parks and recreation programs is starting to solidify with a proposed plan aiming to focus on the town’s natural attractions.
The Parks and Recreation Commission of Rotterdam recently submitted its proposed plan, dubbed Vision 2020, to the Town Board for review. Under the 10-year plan, measures to improve and revitalize the town’s parks and recreation programs would undergo incremental improvements to help realize the goal. The town board will vote on the plan during an upcoming session, but nothing will be finalized or any sort of funding approved, because the board would approve each specific objective before implementation.
`[The plan] is a synopsis of reachable goals and long term goals,` said Councilman Matthew Martin. `Some of the ideas are grand and big, but that is what the purpose of the plan is all about. The plan itself is pretty comprehensive and it is pretty detailed.`
The commission was formed in August 2009 under the previous board and after completing a draft of the plan this April there were five public input sessions held to receive input on the proposal. Based on public input changes were made to the final plan, said Ronald Severson, chairman for the Commission.
One change to the plan from public input sessions is the addition of a proposed dog park in the town, said Severson.
`Some people are actually willing to donate time and money to seeing this built,` said Severson about the dog park. `We might be able to build the dog park without costing the town any money from the general funding itself.`
There are three main goals to the plan, which detail what infrastructure changes should be made, what programs and policies should be implemented and how the town will pay for the plan.
The first goal is to create a general use, multi use and special use facilities for the town. Also, creating neighborhood parks, conservation areas and multi-use trails is part of the goal. Martin said surrounding municipalities have different have different categories of parks, which he would like to see implemented in the town.
Conceptual planning of the `Bicentennial Park` show a large amount of land acquisition, including the 79-acre bonded concrete site between Route 5 and the New York State Thruway. Also, the present 3-acre Woestina Park would be expanded up to 67 acres.
`We were hoping to build a park in Rotterdam Junction,` said Supervisor Frank Del Gallo. `Getting people to go along with it is another thing.`
Developing a general use park in Rotterdam Junction and establishing a dog park in one of the existing parks are the first two plans of action, said Severson. Del Gallo said there are going to be meetings soon on how to accomplish the difference aspects of the plan.
The second goal would ensure effective parks and recreation programs can be enjoyed by all town residents, which would fall under the creation of a new Parks, Recreation, and Community Programs Department.
Severson said existing parks could be used for homes to town leagues and could be used more wisely by developing multi-use fields including a baseball diamond, football field and soccer field all in one.
`Some of our leagues don’t have permanent homes,` said Severson. `We don’t want to overburden taxpayers, on the other hand we have to find a home for these different leagues.`
Although, Severson said the plan doesn’t just focus on sports leagues, but aims to make parks more useful for all residents.
`Right now most of our parks are primarily used by the various leagues,` said Severson. `Those are important programs, but pretty much every one of our parks they are pretty much dedicated to sports leagues for young people. We want a park system and recreation system that is available to people of all ages.`
How the town is going to pay for all these improvements will be the struggle board members are faced to solve.
`Funding is always an issue especially for parks and recreations,` said Martin.
Severson said developing the plan would help the town apply for state and federal grants funding, which would be hard to receive without a finalized plan in writing.
`We are looking at how can we go about doing as many improvements with our parks without costing the taxpayers any money,` said Severson.“
