The presentation of the Parks Master Plan to Council by the consultant who put together the study was a comprehensive review of all the parks and programs offered in the City, a comparison to other cities of similar size, results related to two surveys (a statistically valid survey and an online survey), and ended with recommendations for each of the various parks for critical improvements, secondary improvements, and then visionary improvements. The consultant said that overall, the total plan would take at least 10 years to implement and had a budget of around $65 million dollars if all the items (including a contingency) would be implemented. The largest portion were “visionary” improvements for a total of $36 million (plus a 10% contingency). There were some good improvements suggested to make additional use of Silver Springs Park along with some suggestions for use of the newly purchased land at the driving range. These items will now be reviewed by the administration with feedback from the Parks Board to select, prioritize, and plan for the future of the parks. I look forward to seeing how this develops into a plan and look forward to seeing our prioritization of parks maintenance efforts pay off. The whole meeting can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9wPuxYZf70
At our regular council meeting we heard from students who attended the Close-Up Program in Washington D.C. Council sponsored a student attending this program to help off-set the costs. The goal of the Close-Up program is to educate high school students to create more civic engagement and involvement in our democratic process. The students who attended the meeting shared a timeline of the scheduled activities and tours. They also shared the things they enjoyed the most from the trip and what they learned from the trip. I enjoyed hearing from them and their honesty about what they enjoyed and what they learned about the democratic process.
Council also approved a contract that will begin some tree clearing at the driving range property. This tree clearing will be along the back of the driving range towards the bike trail. There is an active effort to make sure that a healthy tree buffer will remain for the houses along the driving range property, including those on Pebblehurst and the house that is located on Young Road. I know this will help improve the quality of the driving range which already gets a significant amount of use each week.
Last but not least, Council approved a conditional use permit for Faith Family Church to open a location here in Stow in the Norton Road Plaza. This location will be one of 3 locations they offer and it will primarily be used on Sundays for church services along with having some smaller group and youth meetings during the week. We look forward to welcoming them to Stow and Ward 2.
Our next Council meeting will be Thursday May 25th with committees starting at 5:30 PM and Council to follow.