Mayor Andrew Jakubeit said there is nothing unusual in the Parks and Recreation Master Plan Steering Committee seeking to contract a consultant after only having two meetings.
“We’re not subject matter experts. We might have interests on various levels and we try to have a cross-section of people that are sports fields and casual recreation users, members of the public to get different perspectives as we go through the process,” said Jakubeit.
The first priority for the consultant, said Jakubeit, will be to inventory and review the city’s current parks offerings, recreation and sports facilities and programs to give the committee a starting point.
“My interpretation of this process is first we do an inventory of what we have, and then we start developing some plans, going out to the community,” said Jakubeit. “My view of a park is different from your view and other people’s view, but we sort of need a starting point and a subject matter expert to walk us through what has worked elsewhere and what hasn’t and sort of be able to provide some unbiased research.”
Jakubeit said the goal is to create a parks and rec. Master plan that the city will be able to take action on.
“I don’t think anyone wants to create a study that is going to take several years and then collect dust on the shelf,” said Jakubeit, adding that an industry expert will help the committee figure out what a master plan should look like and what are the steps to work towards, which should be the priorities. “We want to be able to action some of these things and the first step is to get a consultant who understands how to go out to the community and understand what we have and what we are missing and what the community perceives as what we have and what we are missing.
“We sometimes have a habit of studying things to death or going to consultants and nothing really coming to action. We are hoping to be collaborative with that community engagement.”
Once a consultant is hired, according to Jakubeit, one of the first priorities will be going out to the community.
“I think the community certainly demonstrated a fair bit of passion over the last year for parks so we know it is important for them,” said Jakubeit, adding that they are also figuring out how to handle the city’s aging facilities, many of which are related to recreation services, and they need to work out priorities.
“Really, what we are looking for a consultant to do is a myriad of things, an inventory of what we have, and what we don’t have, what the trends are in terms of what we need for facilities and for usages,” he said.