The City of Ozark’s Board of Aldermen Monday approved a 10-year Master Plan for the city’s Parks Department.
The plan lists 8 current parks, totaling about 143.5 acres of park space, with 9.3 miles of trails. It says the city would need three additional parks and an additional 88 acres of park space to be at the average for a city its size.
There are recommendations for improvements, additional parks and facilities, as well as suggestions for making better use of areas along the Finley River, which experiences flooding.
Parks and Recreation Director Hayden Ponsar spoke before the Aldermen Monday, he said the community often mentions a need for better playgrounds and amenities like splash pads.
“Additionally, he explained, “we have challenges when it comes to our existing park facilities.”
Ponsar illustrated his point with an example, “I don't know the actual rainfall amount that we received this afternoon, but it was torrential. Finley River Park, if you go down the parkway right now, is ballfield red, and that is all of our ballfield clay that we've invested in on the road down there.”
The cost in funding, time and staff resources to maintain current facilities is a barrier to improvements and building new facilities. As is a limited city budget. Ponsar and the Aldermen acknowledged this. Alderman Bruce Galloway clarified the point with Ponsar.
“Would it be fair to say that the Parks master plan catalogs well and in detail a great many of the needs of our parks, but there is not presently any way to fund, most of those, if not all of them?” Galloway asked. “I think it is fair to say this is a dream,” Ponsar replied, adding “ultimately now it's up to all of us to find out, how do we make this dream happen?”
Galloway also clarified that high profile Parks and Recreation projects completed in the last year, including the pedestrian bridge over Highway 65, have largely been funded with federal and state grants, not from Ozark’s operating budget.
Ponsar praised his team’s ability to find creative funding sources through grants, partners and sponsors.