Park Board Pays Appreciation To Parks Superintendent’s Hard Work
SYRACUSE — Syracuse Park Board met Tuesday evening, July 10. The new program director, Darin Lursen, was present to observe the meeting and introduce himself to the board. The next scheduled park board meeting is at 7 p.m. Aug. 13.
After reviewing the financial report, Lursen told the board a bit about himself. Lursen grew up in Leesburg and attended Warsaw Community High School. From there, he went on to study recreational sports management at Indiana University Bloomington.
Tree board did not have a meeting and had nothing to report on, but Jerry Riffle stated he hosted a tree pruning course.
While all four Lakeside Park restrooms are operational, there are a few things being finished. David Johnston commented the restrooms are good.
Parks Superintendent Chad Jonsson re-presented the 2019 budget to board members, essentially the same as it was last time since there were no requests for changes. The board approved to present the 2019 budget to the town council.
The streets have started to be worked on with the removal of asphalt, to which Jonsson spoke with the contractor who agreed to deliver some of those materials to Laudeman Park, which will be used as a base.
There were 282 participants of the Mudtastic Classic.
Johnston, who volunteered for the event, commented, “I thought the course was very well laid out. People were having a great time. I was at the end at the finish line and had at least three positive comments from people who stopped at said, ‘This is really great. I did it last year, I’m going to do it again next year.’ A couple people said it was their first year and that they were definitely coming back with more people. I think it was just a fun day and some of those people were really muddy.”
Wednesday movies at the community center continue along with Friday night movies in the park. The artisans and farmers market continues every Saturday.
The main upcoming programs are the Tour des Lakes Bike Ride and the Tour des Parks Saturday, July 14. To register to be a part of a leisurely bike ride, visit www.tourdeslakes.com.
Kiwanis Club Triathlon will be Aug. 11. There will be some changes, such as using the pavilion at Lakeside Park to give out food for participants.
Donna Workman took a moment to pay gratitude to Jonsson by saying, “We should appreciate Chad getting along these last weeks without help. He’s had a hard time. I never heard him complain. He’s always doing the best he can and I think a lot of credit goes to Chad in working like he has without any help.”
The rest of the board agreed with Workman and thanked Jonsson for his dedication and hard work.