Jefferson City Parks Dept. hires firm to create master plan

Jefferson City's Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department has been operating without a master plan, placing staff leaders and commissioners in the position of making decisions without current data and fact-based projections.

When Parks Director Todd Spalding arrived in the Capital City a year ago, gathering a master plan was high on his list of priorities.

Also, on Jan. 25, a nationally-recognized architectural firm specializing in parks master plans will begin a seven-month-long, $197,000 project to develop that plan.

Warner Nease Bost Architects Inc. of Kansas City won a national search competition for the master plan project. Spalding and the Parks commission will have a kick-off event for the project Jan. 25 followed by three days of data collection. As part of the study, there will be numerous interactions with Parks employees and consumers of the Parks services, Spalding said.