Milton Parks and Recreation Plan Ok'd

By Annie Piekarczyk / Beacon Media

As an official guide for ongoing and future Parks and Recreation initiatives, the City of Milton Parks and Recreation Assessment Plan and Pattern Book was authorized for use Feb. 1 by Mayor Joe Lockwood and City Council members.

The Recreation Assessment Plan was compiled by EDAW through a contract initiated by the city of Milton in early 2009. The plan was intended to help determine how well Milton’s parks and facilities met current needs and how likely it would be for those facilities to meet future needs. The pattern book was intended to provide guidance for the city as to how the parks should look in the future.

EDAW and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board met three times to discuss the goal of the project as well as issues that needed to be addressed, and how they were to be handled. A public forum last July offered the public an overview of the scope of the project. On Dec. 14, EDAW summarized the project in a presentation to the City Council. Recommendations made by EDAW made several recommendations, including reaching out to citizens, to establish a clear vision for Parks and Recreation.

The findings and recommendations from the performed assessment were compiled into the City of Milton Parks and Recreation Assessment Plan and Pattern book.

An additional recommendation made by EDAW was to consider citizens’ needs and set priorities. The next step would be the completion of a Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment. That project would allow Milton citizens to provide input, via mail survey, regarding parks and recreation. The survey will be mailed to all Milton households and the data will be collected, analyzed, compiled and presented to the City upon completion.

In November 2009, Milton Parks and Recreation Needs Assessments released proposal requests to six firms, three of which responded in December. A follow-up was conducted with each firm to ensure the pricing and scope of work were comparable. The low bidder for mailing to all Milton households at a fixed price of $16,400 and an estimated 25 percent return (which adds a total of $3,400 in postage costs) was the Schapiro Group, Inc.

Because of the 25 percent return in postage costs, Milton initiated a Professional Services Agreement with the Schapiro Group, Inc. to perform a FY10 Parks and Recreation Citizens Survey. Under the agreement, the survey should be completed by May 15.