Premier Agency Member Spotlight: Lansing Parks and Recreation

Lansing Parks and Recreation provides a truly diverse condition and it is used for weddings and other rentals, as selection of recreational opportunities for its residents. well as for programming of the Victorian era.” Not only do they operate 114 parks, four community centers, a nature center, a historic house, a municipal golf Fenner Nature Center is a 130 acre area of mixed habitat course, and other facilities and programs, but they also with around four miles of trails. The programs at the are home to the one-of-a-kind . nature center are run by a non-profit organization and the maintenance of the park, building maintenance and “Our urban River Trail really makes this area unique,” said capital improvements are done by Parks and Recreation. Brett Kaschinske, Lansing Parks and Recreation Director. Volunteers are a big part of running the center and have “It’s a 10.2 mile pathway that runs through the center of participated in many programs such as invasive species the city. It combines a lot of the urban downtown area pulls, trail maintenance, and maintaining native plant and with more of our rural parts. When you go on sections of butterfly gardens. the trail, you’d think you were in the Upper Peninsula, with the trees and the park atmosphere. It’s really special.” A new project involves a grant from the DNR Trust Fund for Crego Park, which is over 200 acres and is the city’s The trail is utilized by individuals and groups from largest park. surrounding communities to walk, run or bike. A new affiliation has recently been announced with the “It’s had some issues as far as environmental quality so formation of the Friends of the Lansing River Trail. there was some clean up and mitigation involved at the site, but we’re set to open this spring,” said Kaschinske. “We’re starting a group that can be a non-profit arm for “We have an accessible canoe/kayak launch there, off raising funds for expansion, maintenance, or fishing and non-motorized boating opportunities. This improvement along our river trail,” said Kaschinske. “We’re gives us an opportunity to have those resources open to looking to connect what we have with several pathways the public when it wasn’t before.” around Lansing.” They are also getting a parks foundation started, which The non-profit arm will provide an opportunity to have will be a non-profit arm for the parks. membership and advocates for the River Trail. It also provides a group for volunteer projects such as trimming “It’s an opportunity to apply for grants that are only back brush and maintaining landscape, as well as a available to 501c3 organizations,” said Kaschinske. “This sounding board for what’s needed along the trail. Lansing also gives us a volunteer base for activities like planting also boasts a long list of parks in the city. trees in parks. We are also looking to engage in fundraising activities.” “We have 114 parks, that’s a large number of parks for a city our size,” said Kaschinske. “We have over 2,000 acres Partnerships and Agreements of parkland. The number of parks and the availability of Whether it be with other municipalities or other non- them spread throughout the community which allows profits, Lansing Parks and Recreation has many residents to access a park within a ten minute walk of any partnerships and agreements that help provide various place within the city. In those parks we have 75 programs to their residents. playgrounds.” “We were collaborating long before it was a buzz word,” The city also runs the Turner Dodge House, a historic said Kaschinske. “We are renting space for a community house that was the home of pioneers who center with the Lansing school district so we have a helped develop the Capitol City and the state. The Turner lease agreement for that. We have an agreement with Dodge House hosts programs such as specialty teas, Ingham County for maintenance along a section of the American Girl day, knitting and crocheting day. River Trail and operation of a dog park. We have an agreement with the Fenner Conservancy to run “The Friends of Turner Dodge raises funds for some of the programs at the Nature Center. And we have an interior upgrades to the house,” said Kaschinske. “It was agreement with Michigan State University for use of our built in the 1800s and added on a little bit in the 1900s. park for their rowing activities.” We have restored the house to a lot of its original

16 MRPA PROfessional • Volume 6, Issue 1 • 2014 They also have an agreement with a boat club to operate a marina along the , as well as one with the Michigan Princess, a for-profit operation that runs a river boat for dinner cruises and rentals.

“We also just signed an agreement with a non-profit group to operate a soccer complex on an old landfill that has been transformed into a park,” said Kaschinske.

Other things that keep the parks staff busy include running the cemeteries and several pools. Volunteers are also a big part of parks and recreation, with several citizen advisory groups in the community. Their biggest volunteer base consists of youth sport coaches. They have a few irons in the fire for the future as well.

“We’ve got what’s called the ‘Red Cedar Renaissance’ project,” said Kaschinske. “At the border of East Lansing and Lansing is an old golf course that we closed. We’re looking to open that up to redevelopment.”

To learn more about Lansing Parks and Recreation, visit www.lansingmi.gov/parks.

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