CITY PARK MASTER PLAN IS NEARING COMPLETION

The master plan for Cape Girardeau's parks is about three-fourths complete. The plan will help the city determine how to expand and better use its parks during the next 15 years, says an advisory commission.

The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board met Monday night to look at how to best use existing parks and determine what sort of parks the city will need in the future.

The board has been developing its master plan for about six months, using information from resident surveys. The 1,300 surveys returned to the department list what residents want in their parks as well as establishes a priority for which parks get the most usage.

"It's an all-consuming master plan -- slash -- wish list to identify, if we had unlimited resources, what we could do in Cape," said Jay Knudtson, chairman of the board.

"It's our long-term plan, and with everything going on in the city we want to be prepared," Knudtson said.

The surveys asked residents to list the types of parks and recreation facilities they would like to see in Cape Girardeau. That list included an aquatic center, more softball and baseball fields, an ice hockey rink, skateboard park and handball courts.

The board has been looking at what sort of equipment and facilities each of the city's 23 parks currently have so it can determine how to improve that park or if any improvements or changes are warranted.

The board not only has to look at the feasibility of the park land but also what it wants philosophically from the city parks, said Director Dan Muser.

The board and park staff has been researching park usage and compiling the resident surveys so that they could "put together a business plan not unlike what a company would do," Knudtson said.

That report is due by the end of May or early in June.