Over 25 residents attend Upper Millcrest Park meeting
Guest blog by Sarah Allen
The Friends of Upper Millcrest Park held a community meeting last Thursday, August 11th at the Community Center to get neighbors' input on hopes and ideas for what more the Park could be.
The turnout was great with over 25 neighbors in attendance! The evening started out with an overview of what has been done to date (see this blog’s entry for July 20th), and then moved into everyone sharing some fond memories that they’ve had in public spaces. After that, maps of Upper Millcrest were scattered around the room and everyone gave their ideas about what they would like to see in the Park by drawing directly onto the map. The evening ended with participants rating what they felt was most important to have in the park and what should happen first in the development of the park. It was made clear that even if all of these ideas were eventually implemented, that the process would likely happen in stages because of funding constraints.
Some of the ideas were:
· A walking trail around the perimeter of the park
· Play areas for both toddlers and older children
· Some type of interactive water feature
· More seating options
· A more distinct park entryway that would include directional signage
The next step is to take all of these ideas and put them into a couple of different working plans that will then be presented to City Council's Parks and Recreation Committee and to Public Works in September to get their feedback. The Friends of Upper Millcrest will then present these ideas to the community to make sure we have buy-in for the plan. After that, we start applying for funding to various foundations and philanthropists.
The City has been very supportive of this process and will try to help make the plan a reality in whatever ways they can, knowing that they have a limited budget.
The Friends of Upper Millcrest also wanted to extend our thanks to the Community Building Institute at Xavier University who helped us facilitate a great meeting that encouraged everyone there to participate.
We will post any further meetings on this blog, or you can email us at millcrestpark@gmail.com.
Sarah Allen
Friends of Millcrest Park
The Friends of Upper Millcrest Park held a community meeting last Thursday, August 11th at the Community Center to get neighbors' input on hopes and ideas for what more the Park could be.
The turnout was great with over 25 neighbors in attendance! The evening started out with an overview of what has been done to date (see this blog’s entry for July 20th), and then moved into everyone sharing some fond memories that they’ve had in public spaces. After that, maps of Upper Millcrest were scattered around the room and everyone gave their ideas about what they would like to see in the Park by drawing directly onto the map. The evening ended with participants rating what they felt was most important to have in the park and what should happen first in the development of the park. It was made clear that even if all of these ideas were eventually implemented, that the process would likely happen in stages because of funding constraints.
Some of the ideas were:
· A walking trail around the perimeter of the park
· Play areas for both toddlers and older children
· Some type of interactive water feature
· More seating options
· A more distinct park entryway that would include directional signage
The next step is to take all of these ideas and put them into a couple of different working plans that will then be presented to City Council's Parks and Recreation Committee and to Public Works in September to get their feedback. The Friends of Upper Millcrest will then present these ideas to the community to make sure we have buy-in for the plan. After that, we start applying for funding to various foundations and philanthropists.
The City has been very supportive of this process and will try to help make the plan a reality in whatever ways they can, knowing that they have a limited budget.
The Friends of Upper Millcrest also wanted to extend our thanks to the Community Building Institute at Xavier University who helped us facilitate a great meeting that encouraged everyone there to participate.
We will post any further meetings on this blog, or you can email us at millcrestpark@gmail.com.
Sarah Allen
Friends of Millcrest Park
posted by Citizens For A Better Norwood at
7:11 AM
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