Recreation Program Improvements

One of the key responsibilities of the West Lafayette Parks and Recreation Department is to provide recreational resources for the city’s residents. This includes not only the physical facilities of the parks network but also recreational programming. The Parks and Recreation Department offers a wide variety of programs and includes free offerings for the city. However, the Department recognizes that they need to continue to grow their recreational programs to meet the needs of residents and to provide the quality of life that the city is known for. The Department also recognizes that adding recreational programs requires additional resources from the Department and should be planned and implemented in a sustainable manner.

As the city has continued to grow, recreational programs provided by the Department have continued to be in high demand. Along with adding new programs, the Department should continue to evaluate existing programs that consistently have wait lists and develop a strategy to meet this additional demand. Typically, this will require adding more staff and may also necessitate adding more locations or partnering with community facilities.

The previous master plan identified 4 key hubs for recreation:

• Wellness Center - Active Recreation

• Margerum City Hall (formerly Morton

Community Center) - Cultural Hub • Lilly Nature Center - Nature Hub

• Tapawingo Park - Festival Hub

While this organization is helpful in terms of determining the primary location for certain types of programs, it is somewhat restrictive in the Department’s need to remain flexible to meet residents needs in terms of recreational programming. This plan is recommending that the Department instead focus on the program goals in terms of the different program types. Program types include nature programming, cultural programming, active recreation programming, and festival programming. The majority of nature programs are currently held at the Lilly Nature Center, and in association with the Celery Bog Nature Area. This has made sense for the Department because of the resources that are available in the Celery Bog Nature Area. However, the Department has recognized that educational programming should be expanded to take advantage of the different ecosystems and habitats available in the Parks and Recreation Department’s parks. This includes art and drawing classes at Happy Hollow Park and Tapawingo Park.

The master plan vision includes increasing access to nature and expanding nature programming. It is recommended that the Department continue to increase the amount of nature programs and events that it holds annually, specifically those at the Lilly Nature Center.

CULTURAL PROGRAMMING

The Morton Community Center was the historic location for most Department cultural programming. This included several art classes and dance classes. Since the renovation of City Hall, and the addition of the Wellness Center, the cultural programming has been divided between the Wellness Center and City Hall. As City Hall continues to transition to more of an administrative building for city offices and city boards and commissions, the Department should continue to transition more of these programs to the Wellness Center. While the urban location of City Hall makes it easily accessible to the surrounding downtown areas, City Hall will continue to need additional space for city operations and cultural programming will be limited in its use of space and available times.

The Wellness Center has been able to accommodate several of the art and dance classes that were previously hosted at the Morton Community Center. However, additional art classes which require special accommodations are in high demand in the city. Special accommodations for these types of classes include rooms that are dedicated specifically for art classes and equipment such as kilns for firing pottery. Space is already in high demand in the Wellness Center for the many other programs that are offered at that location. This plan recommends that the Department work with partner organizations such as the School Corporation to begin to offer

some of the more specialized classes for the short term. Long term solutions may require specific areas that are incorporated into future expansion of the Wellness Center.

ACTIVE RECREATION

Active recreation is primarily located at the Wellness Center. The Wellness Center provides year-round programming for children, youth and adults. In addition, the fields in Cumberland Park are the location for programming in warmer months including several adult softball/baseball leagues. The Wellness Center offers indoor fitness, exercise, and aquatic programs. Cumberland Park also supports soccer, football, baseball, and softball programs.

The Department should continue to audit current programs to identify those that consistently have a wait list and evaluate ways to increase the number of sessions offered for those programs. Again, this will likely require additional staff or require additional hours from existing staff.

FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING

The Department partners with the City and various other partners to host or participate in community festivals with the primary event being Wabash Riverfest which is held in July. Festival programming should continue to be a small part of the Department’s programming but can help to elevate the brand awareness of the Department.

This plan has recommended a master plan process to improve Tapawingo Park. Those improvements should accommodate additional festival programming for the City of West Lafayette. The waterfront location and proximity to downtown parking, make it a desirable destination for largescale community events. Potential new revenues for the Parks and Recreation Department should be included as a part of the master plan design. Although the Department is still adjusting programming to meet safety requirements of an ongoing pandemic, it has continued to offer new programs and expanded sessions for existing programs. New programming for 2022 includes a summer camp to be hosted at the Lilly Nature Center. This is a direct result of the Department hearing from the public that they would like to see additional nature programs.

Continued assessment of current programs while also gauging the demand of residents for new programs is vital to the Department’s ability to remain current with its program offerings. However, as stated earlier, adding programs has implications to staff and park facilities and has to be done in a sustainable way. Additional technology should be explored to assist the Department in this assessment.

Wellness Center

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Implementation