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2022 Award Nominations Close this Friday!
Nominations are now being accepted for the National Association of County Park and Recreation Officials (NACPRO) 2022 awards program. The annual NACPRO Awards Banquet recognizes and honors excellence in parks and recreation at the county, regional, special district level throughout the nation.
The presentation of awards will be held in Valdosta, Georgia on Sunday, May 15, 2022.
Nominations are being accepted through January 21, 2022.
For more information: https://www.nacpro.org/awards
Best Practices Forum
Got an issue you need advice on? Or a best practice you want to share? Send us the details and we will publish it in the next NACPRO News.
Welcome New Members
Ms. Niki Geisler
Parks Director
Dakota County Parks, Minnesota
Mr. Jeremy Husby
Park & Recreation Director
Snohomish County Parks & Recreation Dept., Washington
Member News
Renovations at American Legion Memorial Stadium pay homage to its past
Courtesy of Parks and Recreation Business
By Liz Morrell and W. Lee Jones
NORTH CAROLINA - Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation reopened the iconic American Legion Memorial Stadium (ALMS) with a small ceremony on July 7, 2021. The $40.5-million stadium—located in Charlotte, North Carolina’s center city—was built during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program of the New Deal.
“For the past 85 years, this facility has been a positive symbol of pride for the community,” Department Director W. Lee Jones, AIA, NCARB, commented.
The renovation served not only to upgrade amenities in and around the stadium, but also to preserve and honor its legacy. Highlights of this effort include maintenance of the site’s historic landmark designation through replication of its original architecture, advanced lighting and broadcasting capabilities, the introduction of public art highlighting veterans’ service, and a state-of-the art, under-field, stormwater-management system.
Read more:
https://www.parksandrecbusiness.com/articles/a-legacy-reborn
A Word from Our Sponsors
Plan your space using Pilot Rock CAD drawings
Courtesy of Pilot Rock
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Research and Resources
Ensuring Local Communities Benefit from the Outdoor Recreation Boom
Courtesy of Qualified Ventures
By Seth Brown, Vice President
We are at a pivotal moment for outdoor recreation in this country.
While tourism spending crashed during the pandemic, many Americans rediscovered their love of the great outdoors. Significant federal funding for outdoor recreation infrastructure has come through the Great American Outdoors Act, American Rescue Plan, and bipartisan Infrastructure bill. Sixteen states have established offices of recreation, or similar structures, to advance the outdoor recreation economy and the related benefits such as health and wellbeing, community infrastructure, transportation, education, conservation, and climate resilience.
It’s not all good news. The reality is that while the outdoor recreation economy accounts for 2% of GDP and 3% of all U.S. employees work in outdoor recreation, access to outdoor recreation assets is not equitable. And too often, local communities do not directly benefit from the recreation assets in their backyard. New outdoor recreation infrastructure is difficult to fund, and existing assets are even harder to maintain.
Read more:
https://www.quantifiedventures.com/blog/ensuring-local-communities-benefit-from-outdoor-recreation
What to do with a competition pool
Courtesy of Parks and Recreation Business
By Greg Schmidt
I have never managed anything but competition pools, and I’ve been at it for over 40 years. Many things can be done besides swim meets. Let’s look at some ideas. First, determine your audience and thus the niche in the aquatic market. For example, my pool is at a university, so its primary purpose is to serve students. Its secondary purpose is to serve the surrounding community. Since the pool is a big box full of water, and is very deep (18 feet) in the diving tank, it’s terrific for competition. However, it’s not much good for kids because the shallowest part is still 4 feet deep.
Recreation and park departments can maximize their competition pools by offering such activities as lap swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming, writes Greg Schmidt, aquatic center manager at Eastern Washington University. Competition pools aren't leisure pools and shouldn't be expected to provide the same services, Schmidt writes.
Read more:
https://www.parksandrecbusiness.com/articles/think-outside-a-box-full-of-water
Dane County launches study of equity and inclusion in parks, Vilas Zoo
Courtesy of Madison365.com
By Robert Chappell
WISCONSIN - The Dane County Board of Supervisors has launched an independent evaluation of equity and access at Dane County Parks and the Henry Vilas Zoo.
Keen Independent Research, a national equity consulting firm, will conduct the research over the next several months, with a final report due in late summer. The Arizona-based firm will conduct focus groups and surveys to evaluate how accessible and inclusive County parks and the zoo are.
“I’m looking forward to the community engagement on this, and really, truly getting an understanding of who is using (county parks), who’s not using, and how we can make it better,” said County Board Chair Analiese Eicher, who also serves on the Parks Commission.
Read more:
https://madison365.com/dane-county-launches-study-of-equity-and-inclusion-in-parks-vilas-zoo/
Metroparks-commissioned, economic-benefits study proves impactful on SE Michigan region
Courtesy of Parks and Recreation Business
By Danielle Mauter
MICHIGAN - Parks systems play critical roles in generating significant economic, health, and environmental benefits that enhance the quality of life in communities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parks staff members know this, but they often struggle with the best ways to prove it to partners, grantors, and local tax payers; communities often don’t think of parks as economic drivers. However, these benefits can pay dividends in terms of securing additional funding or even passing millage campaigns.
Huron-Clinton Metroparks is a regional system with 13 unique parks in five counties in southeast Michigan. A recent study, commissioned by The Trust for Public Land (TPL), found that Metroparks generate more than $90 million in direct visitor spending, as well as millions more in the benefits noted above each year across those counties and the hundreds of communities it serves.
Read more:
https://www.parksandrecbusiness.com/articles/show-dont-tell
Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Language Guide
Courtesy of NRPA
The language we use, both formally through public messaging or informally through peer-to-peer conversations, can increase or decrease stigma surrounding mental health and substance use disorders. This resource explains the harmful impact of stigmatizing language, provides key guidelines for how to talk about mental illness and substance use disorder, and provides a chart of language substitutions to replace common stigmatizing terms with respectful language.
For more information:
https://www.nrpa.org/publications-research/best-practice-resources/parks-and-recreation-a-comprehensive-response-to-the-substance-use-crisis/
New NRPA Toolkit Helps Park and Recreation Agencies Secure Funding for Health and Wellness Programs
By Elesha Kingshott, MSW, MPH
We have developed a toolkit to help you answer these questions and more. Financing Health and Wellness Programs: A Toolkit for Park and Recreation Professionals was designed to provide community-based organizations with insights, tips and resources to help secure funding for health and wellness programs. In this toolkit, you’ll find a case study of a successful program that was able to establish connections with a health insurer to reimburse evidence-based physical activity classes for older adults, which we hope can serve as a model for other programs.
The toolkit also provides resources on how to create partnerships with other organizations, so you can collectively seek joint funding. We share tips and talking points on how to effectively communicate with potential funders and partners about the benefits of health and wellness classes for older adults. The toolkit also contains resources from other organizations working in this area. Each of the tools can be tailored to meet your organization’s needs.
For more information:
https://www.nrpa.org/blog/new-nrpa-toolkit-helps-park-and-recreation-agencies-secure-funding-for-health-and-wellness-programs/
In the News
Will Toronto tee up changes to city-run golf courses, amid demands for green space?
Courtesy of the Toronto Star
By Jennifer Pagliaro
CANADA - How best to use Toronto’s precious green spaces — to tee up a golf course or grow much-needed affordable food for urban communities — will be up to city council once it receives recommendations from staff.
In a report headed to the infrastructure and environment committee on Tuesday, city staff say they are recommending an “improved status quo model” for the city’s five golf courses, despite calls to expand broader public use.
That plan, staff said, should include looking at opportunities for growing food. Local residents in low-income neighbourhoods shared “feelings of frustration with their inability to access the largest green space in their community” during consultations — along with a petition signed by 86 local residents advocating for farming opportunities.
Read more:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/01/07/these-places-are-not-a-country-club-toronto-tees-up-changes-to-city-run-golf-courses-amid-growing-demands-for-green-space.html
Does a park bench in Boise show the future of our orange bag plastics?
Courtesy of Boise State Public Radio
By Troy Oppie
IDAHO - When the Hefty EnergyBag recycling program was announced in Boise about three years ago, it asked residents to separate those hard-to-recycle No. 4-7 plastics into orange bags.
The bags were shipped to a Utah company which planned to chemically deconstruct the plastic into diesel fuel. Equipment problems quickly forced the end of that destination, and ever since, the bags have been sent to be incinerated, producing power for concrete production in Utah.
About 20% of Ada County residents dutifully fill orange bags with about 30 tons each month of hard-to-recycle, No. 4-7 plastics: foam, bubble wrap, plastic grocery bags and most food containers. After nearly two years of incinerating the bags as fuel for concrete production, a new company wants to turn our plastic scraps into building materials.
Read more:
https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/news/2022-01-10/does-a-park-bench-in-boise-show-the-future-of-our-orange-bag-plastics
Training
Webinar: Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - Park Funding Sources
Courtesy of the City Parks Alliance
Wednesday, January 19, 2 - 3 pm ET
On November 15, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law. The bipartisan package includes several nontraditional revenue sources from federal agencies that could be used for city park projects.
Join us as Mayor Jim Strickland of Memphis and speakers from the EPA and FEMA walk us through the Safeguarding Tomorrow through Ongoing Risk Mitigation (STORM) Act, Clean Water State Revolving Fund, and Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.
Register now to join this webinar, which is free and open to all!
For more information:
https://cityparksalliance.org/event/infrastructure-investment-and-jobs-act-park-funding-sources/
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