Parks and Rec Plan in Works

DAYTON - At Lyons Ferry Marina, near Star- buck, the boat slips are in need of repair. In Day- ton, the swimming pool is closed all winter. Out in the farmland around Day- ton, it's hard for hunters to know where one property ends and another begins.

These are some of the concerns that local residents lining up to attend Turkey Bingo on Saturday were presented with as they prepared to buy their bingo cards. There were several others.

Two students from East- ern Washington Univer- sity's school of Urban and Regional Planning in Spo- kane, were on hand to get input from the crowd about what recreational features in our area are most impor- tant to them. Participants were asked to place dots next to pictures of the rec- reational activities that they feel should be the highest priority.

Zam DeShields and Jamie Gardipe, both secondyear graduate students, are preparing a "Parks Master Plan," to be used by four local entities: the City of Dayton, Columbia County, the Port of Columbia and the City of Starbuck.

Dayton and Columbia County are full of recreational opportunities, from hunting and fishing to ski- ing and cycling to boating and camping to walking along the river dike and swimming in the Dayton pool. But many commu- nity leaders see room for improvement. And, when asked, many other local residents do too.

Improvements to recre- ational facilities cost mon- ey, however, and many of the sources of funds available to improve those facilities, or build new ones, require the entity request- ing the funds to have a parks and recreation plan in place. There is currently none.

The Washington State Recreation and Conserva- tion Office manages grant programs that create and improve outdoor recreation sites and also protect wildlife and fish habitat. Ac- cording to the its website, RCO provides an average of 230 grant awards for $60 million each year. A parks and recreation plan is usually required to receive RCO grant funds.

DeShields and Gardipe say that numerous federal grant programs are avail- able which will also require a master plan to be in place.

They intend to submit their draft plan to the four local entities by January. The plan must be imple- mented by March 1 in order for grant applications to be submitted for 2014 awards.

On November 20, the students interviewed more than 20 local "stakehold- ers" about recreational needs in the area. Inter- viewees included local farmers and business peo- ple, city council members and other officials. They also met with the Columbia County Commissioners during their regular meet- ing that day. "We got a great response," said DeShields. "And we hope to talk to several more people in the next few weeks."

According to DeShields, the stakeholder surveys and the dot exercises will be used to create a list of potential recreational improvements for our area. A short survey will be estab- lished, using the previous research, to create a final priority list for the plan.

"These are the three public input components that will be used to create the plan," said DeShields. She said that when Dayton, Starbuck, the county or the port are ready to apply for funds, the priorities established through public input will be able to show that there is a genuine need for the project.

DeShields said that the three priorities that received the most dots at Turkey Bingo were the Dayton City Pool, a new commu- nity center and camping facilities in the county. Other items on the list included the Lyons Ferry Marina, fishing and Hunt- ing, mountain biking and road cycling, a cycling and walking trail between Day- ton and Waitsburg.

DeShields and Gardipe plan to return to Dayton in December to gather further public input, probably at a Bulldog basketball game.