What should Rochester do with extra park funding?
In a unanimous vote Monday afternoon, the Rochester City Council cleared the way for Rochester Parks and Recreation to start work on 15 improvement projects, funded by the $2 million referendum approved by taxpayers in November.
Among the projects on the docket for 2021 exclusively funded with referendum dollars: $375,000 for Phase II construction projects at Cascade Lake Park; $150,000 for repairs and improvements at the Plummer House, including preservation work on the water tower; and $575,000 for two separate “spray pad” projects at Lincolnshire Park and McQuillan Park.
Graphic via council agenda packet
Council Member Patrick Keane was the one to move approval for the department’s plans, although he said the department’s first-year priorities didn’t entirely match with what the referendum was originally sold on improving. He added, though, that it would take much more than one year to identify if the department was on the right track.
“I’m going to trust that these are the right priorities based on those that are in the expert position, but I also want to voice my concern,” said Keane. “We should be able to draw a straight line from the referendum to what we’re spending the referendum funds on. I think this was much more sold on green space and trails, things like that.”
In a separate 5-2 vote, the council tabled a proposal to give Parks & Rec $29,000 of contingency funds to explore “expanded community engagement efforts” for creating updated master plans for Silver Lake and Soldiers Field Park. (Bransford and Palmer were the two votes against tabling.)
There was disagreement among council members and city staff during discussion, centered around discrepancies between how targeted the proposed outreach would be. The council’s agenda packet says the funds would be primarily used to create a “randomized survey” sent out to community members on their priorities for the new master plans.
Popular sentiment among council members was that any immediate city outreach should be more exclusive to neighborhoods and users of parks, before reaching out to the public at large.
“We already have that overall tier of park feedback” through the park system master plan, said Council Member Nick Campion. “Individual park master plans have to be a lot more targeted, and I don’t see Polco [the city’s survey software] driving that.”
Council members expressed a desire to bring the motion back to the table within the next six weeks, possibly as a topic at a future study session.
Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.
