Survey says: Grand Island wants more recreation options

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

What do Islanders want from the town in the way of new recreation opportunities?

An online survey to answer that question ended Sept. 12, with 700 people responding. Response cards were also circulated at town events and through service organizations.

Now, planners have to analyze the results, and town officials ultimately have to decide what projects are doable and how to pay for them.

The trend in survey responses showed that residents see a need for more indoor recreation facilities.

Leading the recreation master plan survey is Michael Cocquyt, senior program manager for LaBella Associates. The company was hired by the town as an engineering, architectural and planning consultant. Cocquyt and his firm are in the process of analyzing results of the survey.

LaBella was to present preliminary findings on Thursday to the town’s Parks, Recreation and Senior Services Master Plan committee. Then the committee will complete a report by the end of the year.

Cocquyt said of the 700 survey respondents, “That is a very good response rate for a community of (Grand Island’s) size. We do comprehensive plans for communities, as well as recreation plans, all the time. … We’re ecstatic to get 500 (responses).”

He said he’s sure the survey responses will provide great information.

Cocquyt commented that “in the preliminary review when we were at 200 results … we noted the trend toward more facilities … as a need. And that’s also something that our analysis of current amenities showed – a need for expansion and improvements to indoor facilities.”

Cocquyt said his firm also did an analysis that showed Grand Island was lacking in indoor facilities compared to communities of similar size.

“We’re going to be diving deep into it to really see what – not only the community needs from the objective position from the normative data – but also really deep into what are the community members asking for.”

One of the questions asked in the survey is, would residents be willing to pay a few dollars in their taxes to have a recreation facility or program. Other questions include how satisfied residents are with the current town parks and what kinds of recreation activities and facilities are still needed.

The Town Board, on Oct. 2, 2024, OK’d a bid of $89,900 for LaBella to do the town’s Parks, Recreation and Senior Services Master Plan. The company projected a timeline of 18 to 24 months to complete the master plan, which will provide a framework for future parks and recreation programming and development.

Having a master plan can help in obtaining grant funding to then complete the work of building new facilities and establishing recreational programs, Town Board members said.

The tab for the first year of the master plan project is $45,000. That includes $35,000 from Erie County and $10,000 from the town. Council member Tom Digati said it’s hoped the county and town would share funding in a similar way for the second year of the project, which is budgeted at an additional $44,900.

Digati credited Jim Sharpe, chair of the Comprehensive Plan Review Advisory Board, for helping obtain county funds for the project.

Sharpe tells the story of how a county grant became available to work up a recreation master plan.

Sharpe said he worked to develop the 13-member advisory board to include three basic members, with the rest assigned to come from the town’s other advisory boards.

“I wanted all the voices to be heard,” he said. “I then went to the county and said, ‘I need a planner,’ and the county said, ‘Well, why would we do this?’ I said, ‘I’ve got one good reason, and that is, I’ve been all over the county, I’ve been with Mark Poloncarz doing these ribbon cuttings at all these parks all over the county, and I said, ‘Guess what Grand Island doesn’t have … county parks!’ I kind of feel that Grand Island is getting cheated.”

Pointing this out to county officials, Sharpe said he was jokingly accused of blackmail: “I said, ‘Well, I don’t know if you want to call it blackmail, but I sure would love the partnership.’ ”

Sharpe said, “I got the money (from the county) for a planner, and that’s why we have a planner working with that board,” he said of the Town Board hiring LaBella to help do a new recreation master plan.

In the 1990s, Sharpe was the Town Board liaison to the Recreation Department.

“In ’92, I actually did a master plan with ‘Rec,’ and that’s how Veterans Park got developed,” he said.

Sharpe added the Fisherman’s Landing park also was a result of the 1992 master planning.

Of the new recreation master plan effort, Sharpe said, “I really feel that the energy’s here today to possibly make something really come out of it.”

He said one of the leading requests he hears from the public is that the town wants a community center.

“I hear more and more about a facility, a building … something that’s central vs. being somewhere on the outer edges of Grand Island,” he said.

Sharpe said the call seems to be for a place that offers internal instead of external activity – a structure, for example.

“Some kind of sporting that we could do inside this building, especially in the winter, instead of having to go to some other community to do it,” he said.

Sharpe noted the schools have gyms and a pool, but they are using them and booking them.

He said the new master plan will consider the recreation needs of residents from youth to seniors.

“Everything has its time, and I think it’s time,” Sharpe said.