KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Recreation Summit starts at 6:00 in borough assembly chambers.
People love using Fort Abercrombie for recreation. Same with Near Island, Boy Scout Lake and the Buskin area, as well as trails outside of town.
Those are some of the findings of a survey being conducted right now to understand how people on Kodiak spend their time when recreating and what they’d like to see added or improved in terms of facilities and opportunities.
The survey is open for taking through the end of the month, but preliminary results show, that in addition to trails, people are looking for places for kids to play indoors, places to kayak and to take advantage of winter sports.
The Kodiak Island Borough Parks and Rec Committee is holding a “Recreational Summit” this evening where people can learn more about planning for recreational activities. It’s part of the committee’s effort to update the borough’s Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Plan.
Daniel McKenna-Foster is an associate planner with the borough community development department.
“We’re gonna talk a little bit about what we’ve done so far. Talk about the preliminary results of the survey, which are pretty exciting. We’re getting a lot of respondents. We’re looking for more.
And then we’re going to get some maps out and have people actually show us and show the committee where they like to recreate, where they’ve seen problems, where they’ve seen great improvements, things they like. Just so we get that other piece of information to help us to guide the priorities of this plan. And hopefully guide policy making in recreation going forward.”
The parks and rec committee wants to update the plan because the one in use now is nearly 40 years old. To give an idea of how out-of-date it is, committee chair Patrick Saltonstall says it lists the top three most popular recreational activities in Kodiak as driving for pleasure, picnicking, and sport fishing.
“Those are still popular in Kodiak but now Kodiak has such an expanded range of recreational opportunities.”
The parks and rec committee hopes to create a new plan that would quantify and incorporate the findings from tonight’s summit and the survey. That new plan would then be able to help direct future decisions for borough land disposal and area-wide development.
Tonight’s parks and rec summit begins at 6:00 in the borough assembly chambers.
You can add your input to the conversation at the meeting or by taking the online survey.
Click Here to go to the online recreation survey.
Comments for this story came from a recent Talk of the Rock program. Click Here to listen to the full half-hour of discussion about recreation in Kodiak.
