By Larry Pelatt
President, THPRD Board of Directors
Greetings from your elected board of directors!
I hope you noticed the postcards we’ve sent you in recent months. Those, along with this message, are just some of the new efforts we’re making to keep you informed about key goings-on at the park district and to ensure you always know how to get in touch with us.
One of the major findings of our latest comprehensive plan update was the need for functional plans to guide our operations. So we’ve done just that. We’ve completed plans for natural resources, parks, programs, and trails, and we’ll soon finish one for athletic facilities.
Let’s focus here on the Programs Functional Plan. Begun in summer 2014 with significant internal and public input, the plan provides direction and guidance for program development, service assessment, cost recovery, programming for people with disabilities, and success monitoring.
We’ll perform the service assessments annually to help us determine which programs meet community needs and use resources most efficiently. High-performing programs will be advanced, while low-performing programs may be eliminated.
In other words, our staff now has a roadmap they can use to best meet your recreational programming needs.
Our community is changing all the time. To be successful, we need to offer the programs you want at prices you can afford. Our goal is to make programs come as close as they can to paying for themselves, leaving our tax revenue to pay for amenities and services like parks and trails.
Just because we have a plan in place doesn’t mean we’re no longer interested in hearing from you – please keep your comments flowing into our offices. Drop us a line anytime about functional plans or any THPRD-related topic at boardofdirectors@thprd.org.
I'm looking forward to warmer months ahead and all the fun classes and events described in this activities guide. I hope you are too. Thanks for your support.