Ocounty County seeks input on parks and rec plan

Oconto County Parks and Recreation is working with UW-Madison Extension to develop a Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation and Parks Plan 2022-2026 in order to become eligible for state and federal grant opportunities. The plan is designed to set the county’s recreational direction for the next five years and will take about six months to prepare.

Each of the county’s six parks, 13 boat landings and numerous recreational properties will be examined in detail for upgrades and development potential based upon the identified needs from the public and users.

“In order to know what people would like to see improved or even developed, we want to hear from the public,” said Dale Mohr, community development educator with the Extension office in Oconto. “A 10-question online survey has been developed to gather the public comments and preferred improvement ideas.”

The intention of the survey is to help guide the staff in both departments in making detailed plans for each of the county sites.

“You can access the survey up until midnight on Aug. 30,” said Monty Brink, Oconto County parks director. “We have included a section of the plan to include town parks in order for the smaller communities to become eligible for grants, as well. This is a separate town survey the Extension staff sent out directly to the towns in July.”

The planning process is envisioned to be completed later this winter with a public review and open house.

The public survey can be found at http://www.co.oconto.wi.us/?i=1882 . If you are unable to access the online survey or have other comments about parks and wish to talk about them, you can contact Brink at 920-834-6821 or Mohr at 920-834-6845.