Perrysburg residents discuss possible changes to area parks

Perrysburg city council member Tom Mackin, bottom, discusses ideas for parks as Wood County Park District's Bryan Bockbrader listens with the rest of his group talking about upgrades to the park Wednesday night.

The Blade/Mark Monroe
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Perrysburg city council member Tom Mackin, bottom, discusses ideas for parks as Wood County Park District's Bryan Bockbrader listens with the rest of his group talking about upgrades to the park Wednesday night.

Wood County Park District met with Perrysburg residents at W.W. Knight Preserve tonight to brainstorm changes and additions people want in their local parks. 

W.W. Knight Preserve held a town hall meeting with the Wood County Park District to brainstorm ideas to improve the park.

Wood County Park District Director Neil Munger and park district stewardship coordinator Bryan Bockbrader guided conversation at the meeting, which was attended by eight citizens, a park ranger, and three park board members. 

"We are looking for a variety of ideas," Mr. Munger said. "We are looking to hear what we need to improve, maybe tweak. It gives everyone the opportunity to give us direction on what they want in their parks."

This was the first town hall style meeting out of nine to be held weekly by the park district. There will be meetings every week, with one week break in the middle for the next eight weeks. 

The next meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. April 11 at Otsego Park, 20000 West River Rd. in Bowling Green. 

The Wood County Park District has 19 parks with over 1,127 acres of land in the county. 

Some ideas presented by the public included more multiple use trails for bikes and hiking, keeping up on facility maintenance, more educational signs and observations, brochures that include what wildlife is there and descriptions of it, as well as "proper" staff and volunteer education.

Mr. Munger said the ideas they gather in these sessions will be brought to the park board this fall  for possible implementation next year.Mr. Munger said they held similar meetings for ideas five years ago.

After the town hall meetings are conducted there will also be an online survey to gather more ideas and review repetition. 

"We don't want to invest money in something people don't want," Mr. Bockbrader said. "We are looking to see if people want the parks to develop new programs or new resources. If we hear something over and over again it will be something we need." 

Contact Matt Thompson at: mthompson@theblade.com or 419-356-8786 or on Twitter at @mthompson25.