By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Kristin Otley created a splash with her news at Bowling Green City Council Monday evening. City pool staff is being hired. Park buildings are being rented.
And Otley, Bowling Green parks and recreation director, has gone from using an “abundance of caution” last year to being “cautiously optimistic” this year.
“We’re really hopeful we will have a lot going on this summer,” Otley said to City Council on Monday evening.
While the city’s parks have been a place of refuge this past year, they have mostly been enjoyed in solitude.
“We’re getting phenomenal use in the parks,” Otley said.
But the city pool was closed, park programs were very limited, and the traditional events that attract crowds of people were canceled.
But this summer, Otley is optimistic that in addition to the pool being open, that the city can return to its weekly concerts and lunches in City Park.
“But it’s probably going to look different,” she added.
Otley is waiting for new guidelines to be issued by public health officials later this month.
Also at the meeting, Otley reported that 2,500 surveys have been mailed out to gauge the park and recreational needs of local residents. The surveys will help the parks and recreation department create its five-year master plan, and provide information for the park levy to be on the ballot this fall.
The three-page surveys went out to a random sampling of city residents.
“If you do get a survey, fill it out as soon as you can,” Otley said. The results will be tabulated by students of BGSU’s Dr. Shannon Orr.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, Bowling Green Sustainability Coordinator Amanda Gamby reported that the city’s new food waste composting pilot is set to start on March 26. Of the 350 food waste buckets being given away by the city, more than 200 have already been reserved.
“That’s all I did for three days straight,” Gamby told city council.
Gamby said she has been asked if those picking up the compost buckets are of a “certain demographic” – like tree-huggers. But she explained that those interested in composting have been all types of people, including a lot of young families.
One woman who stopped by for a composting bucket said her daughter keeps telling her “the earth is gagging” when she throws away something like an apple core. Her third grade daughter had just completed a unit on the earth with Bowling Green City Schools, Gamby said.
The food waste drop-off site will be located behind the city’s public works garage on Tarragon Drive, off East Poe Road. The 64-gallon bright green containers will be open for drop offs daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
