Peters gets input on rec needs
If the more than 40 Peters Township residents who attended the latest round of public meetings on the township’s new 10-year plan for its parks, recreation and green space had their way, there would be an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, a disc golf course and ample room for young entrepreneurs to open lemonade stands.
Or as Chris Posti, a Venetia resident, suggested at the meeting, just keep the township’s green spaces as they are – unspoiled.
Welcome to Comprehensive Planning 101, Peters Township style.
Peters is in the midst of gathering a wish list from its citizens on a new plan for its six parks and recreation space. The township is spending $60,000 in this endeavor and has hired Pashek Associates, a landscape architectural firm based on Pittsburgh’s North Side, to bring the myriad ideas to life.
“As we put together the comprehensive plan, we need to determine where we are now, where we want to be and how we get there,” Pashek’s Bob Good told the residents at a Feb. 5 community meeting held at the Peters Township Public Library.
A master, or comprehensive, plan for its recreational needs is vital to the township if it is to secure funding for some of the items on the citizens’ wish list. Good told the audience that the first step in the multi-faceted process is to get ideas, prioritize them and create the plan. Financing, administration and management issues, as well as the roles of various community groups and the Peters Township School District, will be considered as part of the plan.
“We have to look at how all of these items then fit with the municipal comprehensive plan,” Good explained.
But the Feb. 5 meeting was all about ideas. Good filled more than three poster-sized pieces of paper with ideas. No idea seemed too farfetched for Good, including stocking Peters Lake with fish. Peters also has an online questionnaire on its website for residents who have been not been able to make it to any of the public meetings.
“How about an indoor public pool?” volunteered Rebecca Regeth of Venetia. “I would like it to be an indoor pool so I could bring my children.”
Her suggestion drew applause from the audience. Others contributed to Regeth’s suggestion.
“It has to be a community pool,” one woman said. “And it has to be big enough.”
Others suggested updating the existing playground equipment to accommodate older children and still others said they wanted the township to create a dog park.
“We have talked about (a dog park) in the past,” said Michele Harmel, Peters’ Parks and Recreation director.
One man suggested selling naming rights at the township’s six parks.
“How are we going to be able to finance these ideas?” he asked.
Good gave people at the meeting colored stickers numbered one through five, with five being the most important. He then asked residents to put a sticker next to what they viewed as important and what they would like to see in the township. As expected, any of the suggestions that mentioned a swimming pool garnered the most stickers with the number 5 – Peters does not currently have a swimming pool.
A third meeting to gather community input on recreational needs will be held 7 p.m. Feb. 11 at Bower Hill Elementary School. The public is welcome.