Bill Klaproth (Host): This is Our CR Podcast. I'm Bill Klaproth. And with me is Chad Peterson, Parks Superintendent, and Tony Ireland, Recreation Superintendent, as we talk about what makes a city feel like home, how parks and recreation build community in Cedar Rapids.

Chad and Tony, welcome.

Chad Peterson: Thanks for having us, Bill. Good morning

Tony Ireland: It's great to be here this morning, Bill. Thanks again for having us.

Host: You bet. You guys have the best titles ever. You guys have the best jobs. I mean, come on, let's be honest here. Tony, let me start with you. July is National Park and Recreation Month. So, tell us, why is it important to recognize the role parks and recreation play in making a community feel like home?

Tony Ireland: July is very fitting that it's Parks and Rec Month. It's right in the middle of our core season, if you will, when all programs, facilities, parks are in full swing. It's important to highlight just what Parks and Rec is for a community. We're a an essential service that really focuses on providing a higher quality life. And when you talk about higher quality of life, that leads into a bunch of different things, right? And in terms of drawing people to the community, people staying here in the community, enjoying their time in the community, building social capital within the community and connections with people and neighborhoods and things like that. So, it just builds a strong foundation for a healthy and thriving community. And we get to be at the forefront of that.

So, I think Chad and I both consider ourself fortunate to be in the positions we're in, and be able to have a job that really has a meaningful impact and we're actually able to see it too in action. So, we're out and about, having eyes on things, seeing people in programs, seeing people out in the parks, enjoying their time out there. It's a rewarding career. It's something that we don't take for granted for sure. Parks and Rec supports a lot of different realms of just wellbeing in general.

So, you know, it could be physical, it could be mental, it could be the social side. And then, you have the kind of the economic side of it too in terms of people coming here, spending their dollars here, choosing to live here based on a good healthy park system, if you will. Our programming, our facilities are accessible for everyone. So, we try and provide welcoming spaces, welcoming programs for really all ages and abilities.

Chad Peterson: And Bill, I'll chime in there too from the park standpoint. We've got just 4,000 plus acres of park land. We've got around 100 parks. And so, there's enough area for everybody to get out and enjoy the parks department and the parks that we offer. There's nothing better than getting outside and just getting some fresh air, getting some sun on your face. And I think that's what makes my job so enjoyable is I've got roughly 100 different places to go to look at stuff and be outside and just enjoy the outdoors

Host: Yeah, I love that. The 100 parks over 4,000 acres, that's a lot of real estate and places and spaces for things to do things. And Tony, like you said, quality of life issues when you have a vibrant community that offers these leisure time activities, parks and pools. Like you said, July, it's perfect. Things are busy and full and active, and it plays into, as you said, physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, all of those things.

That is really what makes a great community when you can work there and you can also play there. So really, really good stuff, Chad and Tony. So, thank you for that. So, Tony, I know Summer in the Square has become one of the city's signature summer events. So, tell us, what can people expect this year?

Tony Ireland: Yeah. So, Summer in the Square, it's still new. We're only in year two of this, but it's quickly gained a lot of traction and popularity just based on the variety of programming we have there. So, this year, we have about 300 hours of programming across like a 10-week stretch.

We'll have programming down there through the week of August 14th, where we close out with an ice cream social. But types of programming down there, again, when we built out this program schedule with my program staff and myself, we were kind of looking at making sure there was a little something for everyone down there that would bring them down to Green Square, whether it's one of the new ones this year that is happening, right as we speak, is Seniors in the Square. So, it's activities and programming geared towards older adults. I think they have, like, a watercolor class in the park today, and they've had live music down there in the morning. And they've done some learning to ride the transit system.

So again, it's about bringing people to a space, where they can connect with others too. So you know, you don't have to be affiliated with anything. It's just kind of come down there and check out what we have to offer. I think one of the neat things that we do specifically that really was an anchor from last year and has continued to this year is we've connected with a lot of the downtown daycares and centers down there that are a little bit more urban setting, and may not have traditional green space even right outside of their facilities.

So, the running joke is kind of we've become the daycare or the day camp for the day camps. So, we provide the space and the activities. They come with their staff. So, we loosely facilitate, provide the equipment and things like that. So, Game on Green Square is a big popular one. We usually have between 100, 150 kids down there in the morning on Mondays and Wednesdays. Sports in the Square is kind of the counterpart to that. It's more of a sports focus, but just kind of a loose, whether it's wiffle ball or soccer. We bring down some neat inflatable. We have an inflatable sports arena that is really popular down there. So, those are things kind of geared for the youth.

And then, for any of the longtime Cedar Rapidians, if you will, if anybody remembers like the Uptown Friday nights down there at Green Square, prior to our McGrath Amphitheater being built, the return of live music is back with our weekend rehearsals on Thursday evenings here in July.

So, that's another thing. It's family-friendly. It's about coming down to the park, taking in music in a really beautiful setting. We do have a neat little tie-in with some nonprofits, where there's some free will offering for nonprofits to help support five local nonprofits in the area to help raise some funds. So, there's good cause, good music, and then there's some good food trucks down there too. So, for anything from sports to youth programming to arts and crafts to fitness, there's really a little bit of everything. Like I said, typically Monday through Friday, we're down there most days from about 10:00 to noon. And then, there's evening program almost every night too from about 5:00 to 7:00 roughly. It's just kind of a mix and all that schedule and everything is available on our website. So if anyone's interested in checking it out, I urge you to go and come down and pay us a visit down there. You won't be disappointed.

Host: So many great events and programs that people can participate in. These are the things that really do build a great community. And Chad, Tony was talking about how you've all connected with Downtown Daycare and Game On and Green Square. Are there other ways that you work hard to connect the residents with each other and their community through the programs and events that you offer?

Chad Peterson: From a park standpoint, I think the best offering that we can do from our side of the department is to create the best and safest spaces we can for their programs. So for down at Green Square, for any of the programming that's going on down there, we're there in the mornings to make sure that all the trash is picked up, the area's safe for the kids. And then, for the afternoon programs, we'll come back in too and do an afternoon cleanup just to make sure that things are ready for the afternoon programming. It's really just about creating good areas for safe play and for people to enjoy the summer events that Tony and his crews put on.

Tony Ireland: Chad's being humble with how much his crew do down there to make that space a welcoming place for our programming. So, it's kind of this double-edged sword, right? Where they're tasked with like, "Hey, make these spaces look pretty, safe," and everything.

Then, we come in, and lack of better terms, beat them up with all of our hours of programming on it. They're trying to take care of the turf and we're generating a lot of traffic on it. So, they do a great job. I mean, I think you couldn't almost even tell that there's on a weekly average that we have probably anywhere between 700 to 1,000 people down there, just kind of in the park.

That's just for our programming, right? Let alone just the other general park activity outside those hours. So, Chad and his crew do a great job supporting us in terms of our needs for that. And I always like to say like Chad and his crew, you know, they take care of the parks. We can't do what we do without Chad and his team's support. So, a big kudos to them to making sure that our spaces and our everything are taken care of and ready to welcome in the public.

Host: Yeah. Behind every event and park experience, right, there's a lot of work that people don't always see. Chad, can you just embellish a little bit more on what goes into maintaining these spaces?

Chad Peterson: For our downtown parks, we do a little extra maintenance down there. So anywhere from doing some weed control, fertilization, we do extra mowing downtown. It's a hotspot. So obviously, we want to make those spaces kind of pop, and outsiders will drive by and they can see the parks from the interstate.

But otherwise, it's really just trying to keep up with the mowing, making sure the trails are as clean as they can. We've got pavilions that we need to get ready for rentals. We set up and maintain the Ball Diamonds for programming. We're tasked with mowing, the new levees that are being built and some of the open green spaces and detention basins.

So, we're kind of all over the city doing a little bit here, a little bit there, just trying to keep up with the number of parks that we have. And the staff that we have, we do try our hardest to keep up with everything, but there are times when we get a little bit behind and we just do our best to make everything look the best that it can and to be as safe as it can.

Host: Absolutely. And parks and rec certainly do make a city feel like home, and that is the whole basis of this podcast, to showcase all the great work that both of you do to present all of these great events and, like I said, spaces and clean parks and swimming pools and, like you said, Chad, 4,000-plus acres, over 100 parks.

So, this is a great podcast to showcase all the work that you do and all the great things that the City of Cedar Rapids provides for our residents. So, I know the city is developing a parks and recreation comprehensive plan, always thinking ahead.

Chad, how will this plan help guide future investments and ensure the park system continues meeting community needs as we grow and thrive?

Chad Peterson: It's kind of a blueprint for us. So, this is going to give us direction for the next 10 to 15 years. We do a lot of public input with this process. So, it's taking what some of the citizens' wants and needs are as well as the internal wants and needs from our department, a lot of deferred maintenance on some stuff. So, it's really just setting things up for the next 10 to 15 years and giving us a pathway to be able to be productive and efficient and meet the needs of what the residents want too.

Tony Ireland: Bill, I just wanted to chime in there too, and it plays a lot into, like, the prioritization of what our future parks programming spaces are going to look like. And we don't have blank checkbooks, so, we want to be bold and audacious, if you will, in terms of the vision and plan.

And we want the community to be that way too, but also trying to be realistic with resources available to us, too. Like Chad and I both agree that we want to provide everything we can to the community, but sometimes in parks and rec this is pretty standard, unfortunately. You tend to stretch yourself almost too thin sometimes, and then sometimes you run the risk of either quality of programming or quality of service. So, that's something we're trying to balance in the process as well, too, is making sure as the input and the public feedback and even staff input into this too aligns with what we can do.

And we don't want that to dim the people's thoughts or their ideas. We want to hear those bold ideas. But that's part of the planning process, too, is all right, "Here's some of the things we heard. Here's some themes. How are we going to make this work based on resources? What do we need to do to make this work, too? Maybe not just what could be restricted with right now, but what do we need to do to be able to do that? You know, is that additional funding? Is it reallocating resources that we already have and starting to prioritize internally, too?

So, it's a very important thing and it's going to be a super great process. We had our first public input, our public engagement, open house last night. That was very well attended, and we have tons of opportunities coming up over the next really year plus for residents and people in the community to come out and provide feedback on kind ofwhat they want.

At the end of the day, it's their park system, right? So, we want to know what they want in there, what programs they want in there, and that goes for parks, golf, our forestry division, our recreation division. So, all those come into play and we want to hear from the community.

Host: Yeah. Feedback is so important, and it really does help shape where you're going in the future. I do want to look back a little bit though, Tony. As you were answering that question, I was thinking about how Cedar Rapids has changed a lot over the years. Could you just briefly tell us how have parks and recreation changed with it through the years?

Tony Ireland: I think from the recreation side, you see it a lot more with trying to stay with the trends of programming, what else is happening. The one that always comes up recently, and it's probably not even a trend anymore, it's definitely here to stay, is the pickleball craze.

And that started probably a little over 10 years ago. I would say we were almost late adopters when it came to that. We built our first pickleball complex, if you will, a standalone pickleball complex over at Jones Park a few years ago. And that place is just always packed and we're hosting some tournaments in conjunction with some local agencies here.

So, I think when it comes to programming, parks and rec is very notorious program staff specifically for checking out what other communities do. And it may not be in Iowa, but other states. And whether that's from just poking around on websites or activity guides or when we go to workshops and conferences and things like that, it's connecting with other professionals.

And the cool thing about this profession is everyone's willing to share those ideas too. So, we feed off one another and, "Hey, this is working in your community. Maybe that would work there." So, parks and rec professionals are very notorious for willingly sharing successes and even failures about what worked, what didn't work.

So, I think, we're always looking for new ways to make sure we're serving the community in the best way possible, and that also making sure that all of our programming spaces are also accessible for all ages and abilities too, which is something I think, that the city as a whole has done a really good job on that emphasis with ADA compliance and we do have a therapeutic recreation program within our recreation division that kind of focuses on programming for individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities, older adults and things like that.

So, we're always looking for ways to make sure whatever we end up doing at the end of the day is accessible for everyone in the community so everyone feels like they're a part of it and, you know, can participate or visit our spaces.

Host: Well, that welcoming attitude is, again, is really what makes a city feel like home. And Chad, if you could wrap this up for us. If someone is new to Cedar Rapids, what are the some of the best ways to get involved?

Chad Peterson: I would say it's really just getting out into the community and getting involved in different programming, different events. Just getting out to one of the parks or even a dog park and just communicating with the people out there and really trying to get involved.

There's plenty of different opportunities to be involved whether we've got a program that we just started called Adopt a Park. Businesses and groups, they can pick a park and basically help us oversee it and maintain it, whether it's trash pickup or light beautification, certain things like that.

So, there's a lot of opportunities. And if they just hop on our website, that should steer them to the right direction, and give them some places to go and people to see.

Host: Absolutely. This has been a great discussion. Chad and Tony, thank you so much for spending some time with us today as we talk about parks and recreation and how both of those great things come together to make a city feel like home, and you guys are doing a great job. Chad and Tony, thank you again.

Chad Peterson: Thanks, Bill. Appreciate it.

Tony Ireland: Thanks, Bill. Appreciate you having us.

Host: Absolutely. And as Chad and Tony have said, if you want more information, you can visit the website. Just go to cityofcr.com\parks. Once again, cityofcr.com\parks for all the great information and all the wonderful things that the City of Cedar Rapids is doing for it to provide all these great activities, especially during the summer. It's such a wonderful time.

And if you enjoyed this podcast, please share it on your social channels, tell your friends about this podcast as well, and check out our podcast library for more topics of interest to you. I'm Bill Klaproth, and this is Our CR Podcast. Thanks for listening.