Community members provide feedback on design options for rec areas

Green and red stickers, a large sheet of paper on an easel for comments, discussion of bathroom and concessions stand locations, and debate about the skate park’s future all were available at Phillips County Event Center’s Biesemeier Room on Tuesday evening, April 27.

And just what is pickleball, anyway?

A rainy evening didn’t deter about 20 community members from attending a meeting with Ripley Design team members to provide their feedback about design plan options for Holyoke recreation areas.

Ripley Design president Russell Lee and vice president of operations Sam Coutts explained they were there to help guide the city to the creation of a park master plan, and the meeting was part of the planning phase, meant for community feedback and big-picture brainstorming.

Lee and Coutts visited Holyoke on Jan. 20. They took inventory of existing conditions at the sites slated for change and met with city officials and members of the Recreation Advisory Committee.

Ultimately the feedback will be taken into consideration and used to design drawings to include in a Great Outdoors Colorado grant application for funds to construct park improvements at City Park and the baseball/softball diamonds and the nearby area, which was called the sports park.

Color-coded stickers for likes and dislikes were available to be placed directly on specific parts of the drawings, and community members could also write their feedback on an easel in the back of the room.

One conceptual plan for City Park and two different conceptual plans for the sports park were laid on separate tables in the room, allowing visitors to peruse the various possibilities for the future states of the areas.

The preliminary idea presented for City Park included the addition of a splash pad west of the pool, basketball courts and a tennis/pickleball court where the tennis courts now are, and the skate park west of those. It also included a potential stage on the existing concrete slab.

One idea for the sports park included constructing a junior softball field east of the current baseball/softball field, two soccer fields and a playground south of that across East Furry Street and a high school baseball field to the east. This concept also included a roller hockey rink south of the soccer fields. In the drawing, a pedestrian and car paseo spans East Furry Street and East Gordon Street west of the soccer fields.

The second idea for the sports park eliminates the roller hockey rink but keeps the junior softball field east of the current baseball/softball field. A circular drive and drop-off location is near the end of East Furry Street and connects to a pedestrian and car paseo again running south to East Gordon Street, and a youth baseball field and high school baseball field are east of that.

Two soccer fields running north and south are just south of East Gordon Street, and they’re separated by a parking lot.

Recreation director Victoria Dunker said she is happy with how the event went.

“I’m thankful for all the people who came out to give their input,” she said, pointing out that she’s happy to walk anyone who couldn’t attend the meeting through the potential changes.

She continued, “I’m thankful for Ripley Design, too. They’re so professional and came up with great concepts about how to use the areas. We are a super blessed community for all the things we have here, and we just want to keep improving our amenities and bringing people in.”

The next step for the Ripley Design team is to refine the conceptual plans based on the feedback and create a park master plan proposal to present to stakeholders, RAC and then Holyoke City Council.