The Logansport Parks Department is looking to the future as it works to develop a new five-year master plan.

A master plan not only will give the parks staff direction for new projects, says its administrator Jan Fawley, but it also helps the department obtain grants and gives the community a say in parks planning.

Planning for the future, though, can be difficult when funds are limited. Fawley asked the city council finance committee last week for permission to spend $10,000 from the 2010 budget to help pay for a consultant to advise the master plan. Although she was granted the $10,000, she was told an additional $8,000 to cover the rest of the cost was unlikely.

“We’re all doing more with less,” city council finance chairman Scott Kraud said. “It’s where we’re at.”

Fawley told council members the master plan was required to be eligible for many grants The parks department’s previous five-year plan helped it acquire about $400,000 in two Land and Water Conservation Fund grants for the city’s trail system.

“Certainly the trails are one of our biggest accomplishments from the past master plans,” Fawley said. “I think getting the grants for the trails, Eel River Run and the extension of Little Turtle Waterway, are two very important things.”

Fawley said the parks department acted as a partner with other organizations such as Little Turtle Waterway Corp. to secure funding for the trails.

The trails represent one of many projects that came to fruition during the 2006 to 2010 master plan.

Fawley said the parks department also finished upgrading all of the park’s playgrounds in 2006.

“They can always be improved, but at least they are all up to code now,” she said.

Another goal of the last master plan was to form partnerships with different organizations in the county. Fawley said the city parks staff had worked to share resources with the schools and complete projects with other groups.

The department also upgraded the pavilion, addressed accessibility issues at the parks and trails, completed maintenance on trees and addressed vandalism and graffiti.

Fawley explained focus groups and consultants from Lehman and Lehman work to create the master plan by identifying action steps.

“Some of things are no-brainers, but they’re little action steps in our plan,” she said.

Those things include buying equipment such as new mowers, implementing new technology, installing a new heater in the maintenance facility and updating restrooms.

City officials joked at the meeting that much of the previous plan could not become reality because difficult economic times had limited the city’s ability to pursue capital projects.

Fawley defended, saying that many of the items had been accomplished in the past.

“We do get things done, and it does help give us direction for the things that need to grow or change,” the administrator said. “We said we wanted to acquire more property for soccer and football fields, and we got it, right? There’s no doubt about it that with the Huston Park land we can develop more fields.”

That is not to say that everything outlined to be accomplished in the past five years has been done, though. Fawley said one major project still on the books was building a new pool, or a spraygrounds water park with water features.

Creating a new plan will allow members of the public to voice opinions about what they want to see in the city parks.

“It gives the community the opportunity to help set the direction for the parks, and where they’re going,” Fawley said. “I think that’s another thing that’s really important about the master plan.

“We’re not operating on a Republican or Democratic system. We are here as a bi-partisan group that manages the parks the best way we see for the community as a whole, and that’s what this plan does. It helps us have a direction for the things we want to do.”

Fawley said she hoped to start on the master plan by summer at the latest. The plan should take six to eight months to complete and opportunities will be scheduled for public input.

• Jennifer Tangeman is a reporter for the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5148 or jennifer.tangeman@pharostribune.com.