August 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 51

to public transportation. " That's
an issue of trying to get people
who are scattered further away to
be able to utilize resources that we
have, " she explains. " Park connectivity is a big issue and goal for us,
especially when it comes to the
10-Minute Walk. "
That plan includes finding ways to
create more walking and biking trails
and ensuring kids have safe routes to
parks, whether by walking or biking.
In urban areas, it might be easier for
those municipalities to consult with
their department of transportation
to add bike lanes to existing roads
compared to rural municipalities. As
Jones points out: " We don't have a lot
of sidewalks; we're in a rural community. My neighborhood doesn't have
sidewalks. Our downtown is a very
walk-able [area] but getting people to
our parks [is] kind of hard because we
don't have public transportation so
easily accessible as urban areas. We
also have to deal with a lack of funding and money. I think that in many
more urban areas, they can pull from
a couple different pots, where we have
limited resources and limited budgets
compared to those areas. "
10-Minute-Walk Training
On March 5-6, NRPA hosted training in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for
the 22 cities awarded 10-Minute
Walk funding. Throughout the twoday event, attendees discussed approaches to creating more equitable
park systems, participated in handson workshops and toured Chattanooga's parks. Agency teams from
Bennettsville and Winooski were
among those in attendance.
Jones describes the event as " a
wealth of knowledge and information. " McNiel says because she
and Jones didn't have a park and
rec background, they came " into
this whole arena hungry for infor-

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CITY OF WINOOSKI

The Casavant Nature Area includes several
trails that run along the Winooski River.

mation.... " As an example, Jones
cites concerns about health and
wellness in her state.
" In South Carolina, we rank
consistently at the very top of every negative health ranking, " she
explains. " Coming into these positions, we knew that we had to do
whatever we could to make some
positive interventions through recreation for our community. NRPA
and 10-Minute Walk have shown us
avenues in which we can do that -
[such as] creating shared-use agreements with our school district so
that we can start these kids young
with walking or biking to school. "
Jones says these shared-use
agreements will also enable adults
and children to utilize school playgrounds after hours, while the
school district can utilize the parks
for its own events. They just need
to work out the logistics.
Ray Coffey, community services
director at Winooski Department
of Community Services, says,
" We were fortunate to be selected
as a grantee in the second cohort
of the 10-Minute Walk. We are a

very small organization and such
resources are really tight. So, we've
known for a long time that we
needed to do some more comprehensive parks planning and didn't
have a ready path forward in the
way of resources to get that done. "
Thus, the grant and the training
will help the park agency move
closer to achieving its objectives.
Winooski, Vermont
Winooski, Vermont, boasts a population of 7,782, with 82 percent
of its parks accessible within a
10-minute walk. What's more,
Winooski Department of Community Services oversees 200 acres of
park and open space throughout
1.4-square miles, as well as provides programming for a senior
center, community gardens, community center and public library.
" We are actually what I would
call 'Vermont urban,' " says Coffey. " Despite being in Vermont -
which is, overall, an extremely rural
place and has, generally, rural sensibilities - we are unique...in that we
are a little bit more urban in nature.

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Parks & Recreation

August 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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