Parks and Recreation Annual Report 2022-2023

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GREENSBORO PARKS AND RECREATION Annual Report | 2022-2023

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F R M O

P H I L

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I am grateful to have been selected to serve as the director of your Parks and Recreation Department in December. Together with our talented team of staff and community partners, I look forward to serving you in the years to come.

Phil Fleischmann Director, Parks and Recreation City of Greensboro

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We are proud to directly connect with three of the City Council’s recently established priorities: • Hub of Entertainment and Recreation – This is at the core of our department’s mission. It is what we do every day. Greensboro is locally and nationally recognized for the size and diversity of its parks and recreation system. We have received the Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Parks and Recreation from the National Recreation and Park Association four times! • Youth Sports Capital – We operate and maintain several sports facilities – Truist Soccer Complex at Bryan Park, Spencer Love Tennis Center, Greensboro Sportsplex, and Carolyn Allen Park – which host large youth sports tournaments that generate economic impact for our city and surrounding area. We also provide developmental sports opportunities and leagues for youth citywide through our athletics section and partner agencies. • Most Connected City – Through maintaining more than 100 miles of paved and natural surface trails and participating in planning efforts involving bike routes and more, we play an important role in the City’s quest to become a “car optional” city by 2040. This may be the NC Year of the Trail, but we celebrate our trails this and every year! Our City Council’s commitment to these priorities demonstrates its strong support for Parks and Recreation and to the facilities, programs, and services impacting nearly every Greensboro resident. Looking back on 2022-2023, our department had many accomplishments. Among them: • Peeler Recreation Center and Community Park reopened in January after renovations totaling $1.2 million. The center, which opened in 1972, serves residents in northeast Greensboro and beyond.

• Six additional clay courts were completed at Spencer Love Tennis Center, making this one of the largest clay court centers in the southeast with 18 clay courts. • Needed pool repairs and upgrades continued and Plan2Splash - an Aquatics Master Plan – was developed to guide improvements and redevelopment of our swimming facilities in the future. We transformed operations at Warnersville and Windsor pools through piloting free admission to increase access and attendance. We also partnered with the YMCA of Greensboro to offer free Safety Around the Water classes. • The Greensboro Parks Foundation recruited new board members and affirmed its commitment to fundraise in support of the department’s comprehensive master plan. Planning has also continued for two-large scale projects funded by the 2022 Parks and Recreation bond referendum: • Expansion and upgrades at the Greensboro Science Center to include the construction of the area’s first bio dome and Battleground Parks District. community services facility featuring a library, recreation center, and aquatics under one roof. Our community’s support of transformative projects such as these further solidifies Greensboro’s reputation as a city that values parks and recreation and the many benefits that it provides. These accomplishments would not have been possible without the steadfast support of our City leadership – including City Council, Parks and Recreation Commission, City Manager’s Office – and our community. Thank you! • Development of Windsor-Chavis-Nocho Community Complex, Greensboro’s first

Our Leaders

Greensboro Parks and Recreation Leadership Team • Phil Fleischmann , Director • Kobe Riley , Deputy Director • Charles Jackson , Community Recreation Services Division Manager • Tony Royal , Park Operations Division Manager • Shawna Tillery , Planning & Project Development Division Manager Parks and Recreation Commission • Emily Linden , Chair • ChesKesha Cunningham-Dockery , Vice Chair • Cecile Crawford • Sue Henshall

• Anthony Izzard • Walter Johnson • Scott Neely • Robert Nudelman • Blake Odum

Greensboro City Council • Nancy Vaughan , Mayor • Yvonne Johnson , Mayor Pro Tem • Marikay Abuzuaiter , At Large • Hugh Holston , At Large • Sharon Hightower , District 1

• Goldie Wells , District 2 • Zack Matheny , District 3 • Nancy Hoffmann , District 4 • Tammi Thurm , District 5

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Thank you to our sponsors and partners who have supported Greensboro Parks and Recreation within the last year. To see a complete list, please visit our website at: www.greensboro-nc.gov/sponsor

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By the Numbers

Active Adult Participants 41,292

Economic Impact for Sports Events $59.3M

Volunteer Hours 27,902 $887,284 estimated value

Park Visitors 3.7M

Program Registrations 16,247

Website Visitors 723,586

Cheerleading Participants 112 Sports Teams Sponsored by Businesses or Nonprofits 37 Boardwalk Built Along Trails 606 FT Rounds of Golf at Gillespie 15,876

Donations, Grants, Sponsors $595,185

Garden Visitors 397,805

Lake Visitors 253,015 Recreation Center Visitors 160,289

Events Hosted

940 444 170 168 222

Picnic Shelter Reservations

Barber Park Event Center

Simkins Sports Pavilion Meeting Room

Sprayground Reservations

Gateway Garden Event Center

SOCIAL MEDIA

Followers 14%

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Expand

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Programs that Inspire We are committed to providing opportunities for residents to explore nature, support their health and wellness, gather in community, and learn. We make it happen with transformational programs for all ages. This past year, we added more staff positions to help launch new, original programs and events. Our Community Recreation Services programmers drew residents to our recreation centers with great events like the Superhero Bash, a day for kids to act out their comic book fantasies, Glenwood Grind, a celebration of skateboarding and roller skating, and Teen Nights at the Rec, a summer series designed to keep youth engaged during evening hours. Youth Services rolled out Women in Science and Engineering, a year-long program for middle school girls that offered a deep dive into real-world applications of science and technology. New environmental education staffers introduced a Camping 101 course and ramped up the Greensboro Mountain Biking Experience, teaching adults and children how to mountain bike. Our new greenway and gardens programmer added nature walks and programs about pollinators and birds to the Downtown Greenway. There were also new opportunities for people to meet, like the Stroller Rollers walking group, children’s storytime, and Yappy Hour, for pup parents. See something you like? Come on and join us!

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Enhance

Ready to Splash When we completed our Plan2Play comprehensive master plan in 2019, you told us that pools and spraygrounds were important. But our aging facilities (the oldest nearly 80 years old) did not lend themselves to the creative and interactive water play residents crave. Enter Plan2Splash, a vision for the future of Parks and Recreation aquatics facilities. In addition to our traditional community outreach, for the first time we conducted

an equity and inclusion assessment as part of our planning process. We evaluated park access for socially vulnerable groups and how much the City has invested in different geographic areas. This analysis will help guide us where and when we invest resources. The plan recommends $80+ million in facilities to be built over the course of a decade. It recommends replacing Peeler, Warnersville, and Lindley pools, renovating locker rooms, and adding additional interactive water play features. It recommends adding more spray features

to Barber and Keeley Park spraygrounds and building new spraygrounds at Brown Community Park and Hester Park. Griffin Community Park and a piece of City property on Short Farm Road are recommended for new aquatics facilities as well. Windsor pool will be replaced with an indoor aquatic center located at the new Windsor-Chavis Nocho Community Complex. We are just at the beginning of this process. Expect to hear more about funding alternatives and site-specific plans in the coming years.

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Connect

The Heart of the Community

Since its early 2023 grand re-opening, Peeler Community Park and Recreation Center has been popping with activity. With its $1.2 million makeover, it is quickly becoming the heart of the community. Summer participants take morning walks and read the park’s interpretive storywalk book. All ages of folks are enjoying the new amenities, like picnic tables, ballfield, playground, and outdoor fitness equipment. Neighborhood kids fill the new game zone for afternoon video game tournaments. Teens and grownups play pickup games in the gymnasium until 10 pm. Active Adults keep their bodies moving with the Adding Health to Our Years (AHOY) fitness classes. “What I am most proud of is our intergenerational feel for the center,” said Center Supervisor Karenga Arifu said. “We have all age groups.” The project was funded with voter-approved bonds and grants from the National Park Service (NPS), Major League Baseball Youth Development Foundation, and the Cone Mills Foundation. The NPS grant ensures this space will remain parkland forever, welcoming generations of Greensboro residents for years to come.

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Here We Grow

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Plans Completed • Aquatics Master Plan • Griffin Community Park playground relocation • North Buffalo Creek Phase II Plans Underway • Barber Park sprayground and amphitheater improvements • Bingham Park engagement • Bryan Park Master Plan and Phase I renovations • East Greensboro Greenway Feasibility Study • Fisher, Twin Lakes, Hampton, Greentree, and Old Peck Parks Master Plans • Fisher Park gathering space • Gillespie Golf Course Master Plan • Greensboro Science Center bio dome expansion and parking • Greensboro Sportsplex roof replacement • Hester Park mural • King Forest Park accessibility updates • Windsor-Chavis-Nocho Community Complex Under Construction • Lake Daniel Greenway bridge replacement • Lindley, Warnersville, and Peeler Pool renovations • Keely Park accessible mountain bike trail Completed • Brown Community Park playground replacement • Hester Park play prints • Lindley Recreation Center gym cleaning and repainting • Spencer Love Tennis Center Phase II court expansion • Springdale Park overlook • Lake Brandt boat launch • Lake Townsend bulkhead • Mayer Park renovation • Steelman Park accessibility updates

FISCAL YEAR 2022-23

301 S. Greene St., Suite 300 Greensboro, NC 27401 www.GSOParksandRec.com