On the LAKE Front

The group overwhelmingly supported the building of... —Matt Portwood

Second of two reports on last night's VLPRA steering committee received today. -jsq

The message of Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority Executive Director George Page was clear at tonight's Master Planning Steering Committee workshop when he told the group “I'm not a fan of the status quo.” If you've followed the work of Mr. Page and the staff of the VLPRA, especially their work on securing the upcoming baseball tournament which is projected to have an economic impact of about $250,000, then you know that this is no exaggeration.

The meeting tonight was the first of a series of meetings that are geared toward getting public involvement in the upcoming Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Master Plan. The VLPRA has contracted with the Nashville-based architectural and land planning group Lose and Associates, to conduct the comprehensive plan. Lose is pronounced more like the geologic term defining windborne silt (loess), and less like how we identify the team that scores fewer goals in a soccer match (lose). The meeting tonight, which was led by two Lose planners, was focused on evaluating current VLPRA programs and facilities and offering suggestions for future improvements.

This evening's group of about 15 participants consisted of

We had interesting discussions at our group table —Barbara Stratton

First of two reports on last night's VLPRA steering committee received today. -jsq

If you attended any of the CUEE meetings the format was exactly the same. We were divided into groups. Each person wrote down their answers to a list of questions they handed out. Then each group was told to combine their answers into a group list which was written on poster size dry erase sheets. Then the sheets were displayed on the wall in front of all the groups & the answers were discussed. I had to leave when they were discussing the answers to the first question which was: List the 5 things you think are most important to improve the parks & recreation program. I am assuming the group lists were combined into a master list for that question. They were doing each question all the way through before going to the next question. I brought the list of questions with me intending to share what they were but I left my notebook in the car trunk of the person I was riding with & forgot to get it when we left the Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinner. I will not retrieve the notebook until Tuesday, but if you want to know the questions I will send them to you then. If you want more info in the meantime Karen Noll was there also. She came late & probably stayed the entire time. We had interesting discussions at our group table & I'm sure a lot of interesting subjects were covered. However,