Make your desires for Little Axe heard! You now have until July 4th to fill out the City of Norman online Parks and Recreation Survey (Link). Survey information will be used in creating the Norman Parks and Recreation Master Plan.

What has been happening: For about a year a steering committee of citizens appointed by the mayor has been working with planning consultants and City parks staff. Most recently they did a scientific survey which looked at how satisfied people are with parks and rec facilities and programs in Norman, plus questions about priorities for new projects.

Now is a vital opportunity for making comments, and I really encourage you to do the online survey. To me the Little Axe facility meets more diverse needs than do most of the City’s rec facilities. How do you think it could be improved to better serve this community over the next five or 15 years?

Think about what you would like to see. Think ahead– remember this is for developing a planning document which will guide decisions into the future. I would like to see an enhanced and enlarged community center, with space for doing many things. Perhaps it could include a small library area. There is demand for meeting space, for different kinds of activities, both loud and quiet, large and small, active and not so (sitting and listening!) What do you think?

Future process for developing the master plan: The timeline is quick. Initial concepts will be reviewed by the steering committee in July. Then there should be one or two more public meetings to comment on plan ideas. The final master plan and recommendations are planned to be presented by early September. With a plan in hand, we will have priorities for projects throughout Norman. The final question then is how to fund the projects. You should know that for awhile now the parks department has been fairly minimally funded and new money will need to be found to make the changes residents want.

Rachel Butler is Norman Ward 5 council member covering east Norman, including Little Axe.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Editorials, Feature, Rachel Butler W5. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. - Little Axe Ledger -