STARKVILLE – The city is launching a 10-year recreation plan that promises to reshape local facilities and programs to better meet the needs of the community.
In partnership with the Sports Facilities Companies, the independent contractor that manages the city’s parks system, a comprehensive study is underway, inviting residents to shape the future of their parks and recreational spaces.
This new plan follows the success of the last 10-year recreation plan, posed in 2016, which saw the construction of the Cornerstone Park and improvements to the J.L. King Park, Needmore Community Center and McKee Park.
“This is not a document that you just do because you do,” Mayor Lynn Spruill said. “You do it because you want to take inputs. You want to follow it. You want to get better, and so that’s what this master plan is for. It is not for a file drawer. It’s not for us to look like we’re doing something. It’s for us to be doing something.”
Led by SFC, the study will unfold in four key phases with strong emphasis placed on community feedback.
The first phase involves a community survey, available on the Starkville Parks and Recreation Facebook page. The survey seeks insights into how locals use existing facilities, what programs they enjoy and what future amenities they hope to see in Starkville.
Phase two involves conducting on-site visits to evaluate current parks and venues while gathering further community feedback.
Community members are invited to attend an open house forum which will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Travis Outlaw Center at Starkville Sportsplex. The forum will allow residents to engage directly with the advisory committee and parks staff.
“We encourage people to just come,” said Doug Heflin, SFC’s general manager for Starkville Parks and Recreation. “We are always excited to listen to the community again because that’s awesome. That’s the reason we’re here is to serve our community.”
The third phase of the plan will involve looking at parks and recreation systems in similar communities to gauge best practices and innovative solutions. The fourth and final phase will involve compiling all of the collected data into a 10-year blueprint for Starkville’s parks, ensuring the city remains ahead of the curve in providing the recreational spaces and programs its residents need.
After the study is completed, the city will begin evaluating the study’s recommendations and will plan how and when to implement them.
Spruill said that community involvement throughout this process is “critical.”
“That’s how you determine what your community wants, and that’s what we’re trying to do is make sure that we meet the needs and try to look forward to see what potential needs might be,” Spruill said. “The goals are to learn what the community feedback is and then to implement them as we are able. So you have diversity of offerings in the community because we have a diverse community.”
Spruill said she is hopeful to see a skate park come out of this 10-year plan.
“I know from having received comments from neighborhood kids, from other community discussions that have been had, that a skate park is something that people would be very interested in, and I think it’s something that other communities offer and that are that are well used and that round help round out your community’s offerings to a number of ages,” Spruill said. “… I would imagine that this survey will validate that interest, and if not, then we may need to rethink what we’re doing, but that’s part of learning from what your process is.”
Heflin noted that the final plan, due for completion in the next few months, will be evaluated and implemented based on a combination of community desires, industry standards and expert recommendations.
“That is not going to be 100% driven by the community,” Heflin said, citing industry standards and National Recreation and Park Association standards as other key influencers. “We really want to really encourage people to really get involved in the community part of the study again because we like to hear what the community has to say.”
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