Parks gets $40K grant to update master plan
Published 9:54 am Friday, October 25, 2019
Parks officials recently receive a $40,000 grant to develop and update a master plan for the entire park system.
Winchester-Clark County Parks and Recreation was awarded the grant by the National Recreation and Park Association in concert with 10 Minute Walk, a program designed to improve access to parks and green space.
“Our last parks master plan was written in 2001,” WCCPR Program Director Deborah Jackson said. “We are going to rewrite it with community input.”
Jackson said the grant is designated for planning and technical assistance only.
“This is looking at our entire park system and making a short and long-term plan for our parks,” she said.
Part of the process, she said, will be soliciting input from the community and the neighborhoods.
“We want honest feedback about the quality of our parks, the accessibility of parks, programming of the parks,” she said.
According to a news release, Winchester is one of 10 communities to receive grant funds from the NRPA.
When completed, the plan will identify ways to improve the parks, to add parks to unserved communities and add accessibility so residents are within a 10-minute walk from a park.
According to the release, 54 percent of people in Winchester are within a 10-minute walk of a park.
Parks and Rec oversees 11 parks within Clark County ranging in size from one acre to 40 acres.