BURLINGTON, N.C. — The City of Burlington is developing a Recreation & Parks Master Plan that will be used over the next 10-15 years to operate the Department.
Burlington Recreation Superintendent, Bobbi Ruffin-Alston, said she wants residents, business owners, special interest groups, and any other interested parties to add their voices to the conversation.
"One way that we're able to offer the programs that the community actually wants is to talk to the community," said Ruffin-Alston. "It's really interesting how, you know, folks are planning for the community, but they never actually engage and ask them for feedback and so that's why I would say it's important because it's impossible for us to be on target with what the community wants and needs if we don't engage with them."
The Recreation & Parks Master Plan 2023 will look at the existing parks, recreational facilities, programs, and services to determine the current and future level of services for the community based on public input.
The plan will prioritize the needs and desires for upgrading and improving parks, recreational facilities, amenities, programs, and services.
Ruffin-Alston said it's important to consider all of the options when it comes to parks and recreation.
"We make sure that you have things to do when your family is not at school and at work, right, so, recreation is so intertwined with so many parts of the community with public health, with the board of elections, I mean, there's just so much that we get to do when we serve our community and so I think that when residents are giving this input, just really think about, you know, how the facilities are used," she said.
This public input will be utilized to determine the priorities for Burlington's recreational facilities and activities, to explore what funding sources may be available, to identify potential partnerships and how best to support the recreational needs of the community.
"We haven't had a master plan done since the early 2000s, so this gives us an opportunity to kind of assess what Recreation and Parks currently has, as far as our assets, like our parks, our facilities, our trails, as well as the programs that we're offering to the community right now," she said.
Burlington will host a series of in-person public input sessions on January 10 and 11.
Residents are also encouraged to provide input and feedback online through a custom online input forum. The online input forum as well as information about the in-person public input sessions can be found here.
"Your voice really, really does matter and we cannot give you what you need and want if you don't tell us so please get involved," said Ruffin-Alston. "You can visit the website or you can come to one of the public input meetings and our doors and phones are always open too so throughout the year, we get feedback all the time, this is just an opportunity to do it collectively."
The City has hired BerryDunn, a nationally known parks and recreation management consulting firm, to oversee the plan.
Burlington Recreation & Parks In-person Public Input Sessions:
TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2023
• 11:00 am-12:30 pm - Kernodle Senior Center - 1535 S Mebane St, Burlington
• 6:00 pm-7:30 pm - Mayco Bigelow Community Center - 849 Sharpe Rd, Burlington
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2023
• 11:30 am-1:00 pm - Thataway's Youth Center - 1331 Overbrook Rd, Burlington. (Lunch provided - RSVP here or call 336-222-5030)
• 3:30 pm-5:00 pm - The Dream Center - 1423 N Church St, Burlington. (Spanish Translation Available)
• 7:00 pm-8:30 pm - Fire Station 6 - 3644 Bonnar Bridge Pkwy, Burlington. (Dinner provided - RSVP here or call 336-222-5030)