Outdoor classrooms? Still time left to help determine future of Florence parks

Parks are for the people, and time is ticking on the chance for the people to help shape the future of their parks.

For the past year, the City of Florence has been crafting its Parks Master Plan. It's the first of its kind in roughly two decades and the goal is simple: to ensure the community's green spaces continue to be used — and loved — for years to come.

"I think it's always important to get a finger on the pulse of what citizens think is important," said Florence Mayor Julie Aubuchon. "I do think that COVID did change attitudes toward recreation and I think we're seeing that people use the parks a little differently now and we want to reflect that with the amenities that we offer."

Phase I of the three-tiered plan began in October 2023 and included an assessment of the current conditions of the city's six all-season parks: Kentaboo, Lincoln Woods, Orleans, South Fork Park, Stringtown and the Skate Park.

Phase II began this past March. The city conducted an online survey and held an in-person public meeting to gauge residents' opinions on the parks’ current conditions and improvements residents would like to see. That input was used to help create preliminary concepts for park improvements.

"We had a focus group which included parents of young children as well as disabled individuals and the elderly," Aubuchon said.

This second phase is the most critical when it comes to public input. For the past month, a virtual open house has been available for community engagement.

The website includes tabs for each of the parks. When clicked, site visitors will see design suggestions along with opportunities to provide feedback on specific features and the overall concept plan for each park. Scroll down and follow these steps. The community can also rate each park's overall concept plan on a 5-star scale.

"I just like to see it well kept, clean. You know, kids enjoying themselves," David Johnson said.

He heads out to South Fork Park several times a week to shoot hoops on the basketball court, he said. It's his favorite one in all of the parks.

"This one is good but some of the other parks, a lot of kids don't like to play at them because old hoops, bad rims, no nets, stuff like that," he said.

The court at South Fork is listed as an "Opportunity Area" under the current concept plan. Should it be kept or should the area be used for another purpose? The question is up to the community to help answer.

"Improving the courts would be top priority in my mind," Johnson said. "I think there could be a few more. Couldn't hurt."

Aubuchon shutdown claims the existing court at South Fork Park is on the chopping block. She assured that just because it's up for discussion doesn't mean the city's decided to cut it.

"There's a lot of misinformation. You can't believe everything you read on social media. Obviously, people will jump to conclusions sometimes but that's not always accurate," Aubuchon said. "So we will listen to what the residents have to say. I would caution people to not follow misinformation that they see on social media, really look into the survey themselves and find out what the language is and I think that they will be very happy with how it's phrased."

Since the virtual open house opened online, Aubuchon said the site's had more than 1,600 unique visitors and more than 3,000 contributions, which include comments of any kind.

The deadline for feedback is Saturday, Aug. 31. The process will then move into Phase III, which will include cost estimates and recommendations.

The City allocated money in its budget for each phase, spending $100,000 thus far.

"It's not every day you do a master plan so you don't have just a short time frame," Aubochin said. "You as a community should look out to a five-year horizon with some of these improvements, but you will start to see proposals in next year's budget I would think for the initiation of some of these features.

Aubochon has another promise to the community: future improvements to the Florence Aquatic Center. She said the City is working on developing a Master Plan, though that won't roll out until Fall at the earliest.

"I want to set the record straight, don't want any confusion. Our Aquatic Center is a vibrant part of our parks opportunities that we offer and we're committed to it and we are so committed to it that Council committed to doing a master plan for that facility so we want to change the narrative about people asking all the time about, 'What's the future of the aquatic center?'" said Aubuchon. "Well, they can weigh in on it when we go through the steps of our master plan."