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14 <br /> <br />7. Parks. <br />7.01. Overview. The department’s goal is to provide passive open space and active recreational <br />opportunities to serve the needs and desires all residents while working to protect, preserve, restore and <br />provide access to ecologically significant natural resource areas, wildlife habitats and open space. The <br />City of Orono features over 260 acres of maintained parks, trails, and open space. There are twenty-one <br />parks that range from small pocket parks, an off-leash dog park, and even a nine-hole golf course. As of <br />September 2021, the City of Orono now maintains the parks system for Spring Park. The Parks <br />department is small and consists of two full-time employees. Parks once operated under Public Works <br />and has recently evolved into its own department. <br />7.02. By the Numbers (Metrics). <br />Strategy Measure Target 2020 2021 <br />Establish self-sufficient Golf <br />course and Dog Park <br />Dog Park Passes Sold 450 517 787 <br />Rounds of Golf Played 12,000+ 13,531 12,588 <br />Promote Community engagement <br />and volunteer activates at Parks <br />Volunteer Activities 3 1 3 <br />Invest in our natural environment Trees planted / Trees <br />Removed <br />0+ +15/-4 +1/-21 <br />Acres of Prairie maintained 12 <br />Enable public health through <br />sports <br />Sports field reservations 150 199 <br /> <br />7.03. Organization and Staff. The Parks Department brought on full-time parks maintenance worker <br />Jack Thonvold at the end of the year. Jack has done an excellent job so far and we are excited to see the <br />department grow. <br /> <br />7.04. Parks and Trails. The following are highlights from 2021. <br /> <br />7.04.1. Big Island Nature Park. The Big Island Nature Park hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to <br />celebrate the completion of the improvements made to the park. <br /> <br />7.04.2. Bederwood Park. The Bederwood soccer field was extremely busy this summer and held up well <br />through all the play. Reservations for the Bederwood baseball field remain low. <br /> <br />7.04.3. Susan E. Lurton Off Leash Dog Park. In 2021 we continued our trail improvement efforts by <br />upgrading 930 ft of dirt trail to gravel. The Susan E. Lurton Nature and Off Leash Dog Park continues to <br />grow in popularity. From 2017-2020, pass purchases averaged 517 a year. 787 annual passes were <br />purchased for the 2021 season. The parking lot is almost always at capacity with some vehicles parked <br />even along the shoulder of the road. <br />7.04.4. Beaches. The City maintain 4 beaches within our parks system. In 2021 Lydiard and Casco Point <br />beaches received new swim docks and Sandy beach received a new swim platform. At Summit beach a <br />combination of Boy Scout Eagle projects and staff effort restored the sand area, graveled a lakeshore trail <br />and added safety signage to the park. <br /> <br />7.05. Golf Course. 2021 was another good year for the golf course with the course once again meeting <br />target for rounds played with revenues exceeding expenditures.