Warden holds second parks and rec workshop

WARDEN — SCJ Alliance and Washington State University’s Rural Communities Design Initiative hosted a second Parks, Recreation and Open Space Plan Community Engagement Workshop on Tuesday evening at Warden Police Station. The plan is funded by the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office. 

SCJ Alliance Senior Project Manager Brandon Mauseth outlined the plan’s progress.

“We've done a lot of technical planning work on developing the community profile,” Mauseth said. “Demographics of the community, races, age, median income levels, zoning districts, where parks are located, looking at other city programs … just really objectively putting the Warden community profile together.”

SCJ Alliance is a consulting company that is helping the city develop its Parks and Rec plan.

Mauseth said the second phase consisted of analyzing the parks in person and evaluating what each park is missing or what can be improved.

“The third phase that we've started is the public engagement, and the public engagement is really important,” Mauseth said. “One, to get feedback, so we know what you all want, but then two, so we can have strength in our results when we pursue or recommend to the city to look at things like staffing and level of service and programs, but also through pursuits for grant funding.”

The engagement phase and survey have been challenging in Warden, Mauseth said. 

“We still have that open today,” he said. “Ideally, we would have closed that about three weeks ago, but we're trying to get between 8% and 10% of the population to complete the survey, and right now we're just under 4%.”

The next step consists of analyzing and implementing the feedback before bringing the plan to city staff. 

“Our target is to have the plan adopted by April 1. Then the next round of funding for grants, for park-type funding, kind of opens up in May,” Mauseth said. “So, if we can get adoption of the program then we can start to identify what would be competitive.”

WSU Professor Michael Sánchez then spoke about some specific ideas the plan may implement based on prior community feedback, such as a plan to connect the various parks in Warden with trails, bike paths and multi-use paths. 

“The idea is that we are wanting to create a wayfinding, a way for people to know where the parks are and create those connections between the existing and improved parks,” he said.

Sánchez also talked about catering to Warden youth. 

“One of the things you really wanted was something to meet the needs of your teenagers and pre-teens,” Sánchez said. “So that included basketball, it included a skate park where you could do both bicycling and skateboarding.”

Sánchez elaborated on some of the other big-picture ideas for the planning process.

“I know Lamb Weston and some other industries are located here, so that could be a cultural element that we capitalize on in our parks,” Sánchez said. “You have the Palouse to Cascades Trail that goes through here … it's a huge trail and your community here has a little segment of that. So that is something that we can incorporate into the park system here.”

Other hypothetical concepts Sánchez went over included outdoor exercise opportunities, a gateway into Warden, more outdoor seating and tables, improving public restrooms, and other community-focused additions or improvements to the various Warden parks. 

“It sounds like from what we heard, the community really wants to be outdoors and so providing opportunities like these could get people outdoors,” Sánchez said. “I think overall just the community beautification, the parks are one of the first things that people see when they go through a neighborhood, so having beautiful parks can lead to having beautiful downtown streets that have beautiful community areas.”

The community members present at the event then worked with the WSU Interns to draw and write down ideas, workshopping and brainstorming the future of each of Warden’s parks. 

Despite the push for more community engagement, Mauseth said at the end of the workshop that the feedback has been good so far. 

“I don't want you to get too focused on the survey,” Mauseth said. “We've gotten some great feedback and great results, so it's very helpful to progress the project … Don't forget, this still goes through your city council, who represent the community, so it'll need to be reviewed and adopted.

To complete the community survey, visit bit.ly/WardenSurvey. 

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.

    Washington State University Professor Michael Sánchez explains some ideas for Warden’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space Plan during Tuesday’s Community Engagement Workshop at Warden Police Station.
  

    SCJ Alliance Senior Project Manager Brandon Mauseth outlines the progress of the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office-funded Parks, Recreation and Open Space Plan, which Mauseth said could use more community feedback.
  

    Warden community members and Washington State University’s Rural Communities Design Initiative student interns brainstorm ideas for Warden’s parks Tuesday for the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Plan.
  

    Warden community members enjoy Warden City Park – also known as Volunteer Park – during September’s Warden Community Days celebration. The city is working to develop a plan for its outdoor spaces to make its green spaces even more welcoming to residents and visitors.