By Per Peterson
The future of Central Park will, in some way, be put in the community’s hands next week.
Tracy and area residents are invited to share their thoughts on the proposed development of Tracy’s largest park at an open house that will take place from 5-7 p.m. on Jan. 11 at City Hall. Two days after, the City’s Parks Committee will meet again with ISG to discuss feedback received that evening.
At the committee’s most recent meeting, ISG presented two concepts to give an idea of what the park could look like in the future. Both ideas included things the committee members liked, along with preliminary ideas that weren’t quite as well-received and likely wouldn’t work with the layout of the park.
The Parks Committee is made up of chair Rhonda Fredericks, Seth Schmidt (city council representative), Connie Anderson, Marianne Ankrum and Melody Caron.
The focal points of the park include the bandshell, playground area and skating rink, and ideas have been shared on each aspect, including separating the playground area from the bandshell. Parking issues have also been discussed, but overall, progress is being made when it comes to determining how best to move forward with the park.
“I think it’s going great,” Fredericks said. “When we do have a difference, we talk about it and listen to one another. It’s been very positive. That’s one thing that we all kind of stressed when we got into this — we were going to talk, we were going to listen to each other. We’re all so excited about it and want to see things done.”
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.