Even if you’re not a resident of Ottawa County, if you use their parks, they want to hear from you.
“The survey is basically to better understand the community’s perception and satisfaction with our park system.”
Rylie Dorman is the Communication Specialist for Ottawa County Parks.
“We’re also trying to gauge who’s actually using the parks as well as how frequently they’re using the spaces.”
The Parks Commission was established in 1987. Since then, the organization has strategically focused on the county’s four “greenway” corridors, that being the Grand River, the Lake Michigan shoreline, the Macatawa River and the Pigeon River. This focus led to the approval of a Parks Millage in 1996 plus two renewals, one in 2006 and another in 2016. The commission hopes this survey will help guide it when proposing an updated millage renewal in 2026.
“Our department has focused predominantly on land acquisition in the past thirty years because that’s what was laid out in our previous plan, so now it’s kind of deciding where do we want to go from there and what do people want to see from the parks department.”
Dorman says they want to hear from as many people as possible. You can take the survey here until April 10th. A public presentation of the strategic plan will be held in June.