(BLOOMINGTON) – The City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department invites all community members to share comments and ideas that will help the Department develop its next five-year Master Plan, scheduled for completion by January 2021. The master planning process serves to integrate community needs into the use and development of parks facilities and programming and fulfill eligibility requirements for national accreditation and grant awards.
An online Master Plan public input session will take place virtually via Zoom from 4 until 6 p.m. on Thursday, September 3. Visitors may enter the session and participate at any time during the two-hour window. Go to bloomington.in.gov/parks and click on the “Master Plan Online Public Input Session” for a link to the Zoom meeting.
Short presentations about how to participate in the online forum take place at 4:05 p.m. and 5:05 p.m. The public input session will be streamed live on Facebook on the City of Bloomington, IN – Parks and Recreation Facebook page, and comments and input can also be made via the Facebook live stream.
Meeting attendees will have an opportunity to use the online platform to answer questions about the Parks and Recreation Department and offer suggestions for programs and facilities to create or build, or those that should be discontinued. Prompts include other questions about natural resources and stewardship, diversity and equity in parks and recreation, and administration: staff, partnerships, and funding.
All feedback from the public input session, as well as responses to the general public survey, will be compiled and used to form the overarching direction of the 2021-2025 Master Plan.
The Master Plan team is led by the Troyer Group, Inc., a design and engineering firm based in Mishawaka, Ind. Troyer Group is qualified in the master planning process in the parks and recreation field, and was selected in part for their experience in gathering data from diverse populations.
Staff from the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department and several other city departments, as well as public and private stakeholders, serve on the master plan’s technical review and steering committees.
“There is no more critical goal for our department than to engage our community in determining our future direction,” said Paula McDevitt, Administrator of the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department. “We want to hear from community members about what priorities they believe Parks and Recreation should include in the upcoming Master Plan. Everyone in the community has a voice that we want to hear in this process.”
McDevitt added that a randomly selected sample of Bloomington residents received a postcard in the mail in mid-August, with an invitation to go online and take a survey about Bloomington parks and programs. When the surveys are completed, the Troyer Group can produce a statistically valid sampling of community needs and concerns to include in the Master Plan.
Community members who were not invited to be part of the random sample are also welcome to fill out an online survey. These surveys are not included in the statistically valid sample, but all input is considered for the Master Plan. To take an online survey, visit bloomington.in.gov/parks and click the appropriate link to submit survey responses in either English or Spanish.
For more information about Bloomington Parks and Recreation’s Master Plan process, or to find out how to contribute opinions and ideas, contact Bloomington Parks and Recreation at 812-349-3700 or email parks@bloomington.in.gov.Â
