Under Development

FUTURE  PLANNING –   PARKS  & RECREATION  PLAN  2030

The Sapulpa Parks and Recreation Board, appointed by the Mayor of the City of Sapulpa, advises and assists the Parks Department Staff in planning and development efforts, both short and long-term on behalf of the citizens of Sapulpa and the City’s Parks and Recreation System.  The Sapulpa Parks and Recreation Master Plan (2030), when completed, will set the tone and direction for all future planning efforts of the Sapulpa Parks Department.

 

Part 3 of 3 of the overall Comprehensive Plan in coordination with INCOG, is scheduled for completion in 2011-12.

 

The following is a listing of some of the proposed planning activities under consideration by the Sapulpa Parks and Recreation Department Staff.  The items are not necessarily listed in priority sequential order.

 

1. YOUTH SPORTS COMPLEXES
1. Funding has not been currently identified for staff to begin working to develop a concept plan with detailed cost estimates for soccer, baseball, and football sports facilities.

 

2. Staff will also need to identify a funding source before it can complete developments of a final concept plan with detailed cost estimates for the construction of four (4) additional girls’ softball fields with supporting concessions and restrooms facilities, and parking improvements to be located at the City-owned, 20 acre site on south Wickham Road.

 

 

 

1. 2.     STORMWATER MANAGEMENT/RECREATION PROJECTS STUDY

       Engage and fund a detailed, professional level Study to investigate and research the possibilities of developing local Sapulpa area creeks as recreation waterways for canoes and small watercraft, and for recreation trail routes for pedestrian, bicycle, etc. usage, and combining storm water management.

Sapulpa has such hilly terrain and low lying floodplain areas that has made development difficult.  We are a VERY unique community in that we have numerous waterways, creeks etc. surrounding our Community. Why not investigate the possibility of using these to our advantage?

 

1. 3.     SKATEPARK FACILITY

A community-wide meeting will be held at the end of May, 2011.  Information obtained will be utilized to develop a master plan and then detailed cost estimates for a new community Skate Park facility, which would accommodate rollerblades, bicycles, and skateboards.  No funding sources have been identifies yet.

 

1. 4.     PARKS MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS FACILITY

The Parks Maintenance Division is currently working out of an existing facility that we outgrew 10 years ago.  We also are in need of an open air covered shelter for the storage of mowing and other such equipment. Staff is considering the possibilities of a “joint” Maintenance Compound with the City’s Cemetery Maintenance Department, or possibly relocating to Aaron’s Angels Park.

 

1. 5.     ADULT SPORTS COMPLEX

The City is in need of a 5-acre fourplex facility to meet the adult softball needs of the community.  Currently, the adult softball program plays its league games at Kelly Lane Park, which is unsuited for the adults.  Staff simply does not have any other available ballfield sites and to make-do for the time being, we have installed safety netting to keep balls from traveling over the fence into the park play areas and or recreation trail pathways.

 

1. 6.     PARK SITE PLANS

      Develop further plans with current cost estimates for selected park sites to include; a new playground system at Kelly Lane Park, a Splashpad facility at Wickham Park, standardization of park entry signage, picnic shelters, picnic tables, grills, restroom and concession facilities, playgrounds, outdoor courts, ballfields, etc.

 

1. 7.     RECREATION TRAILS

Develop a Priority Listing of trail projects with a FOCUS on CONNECTIVITY, to be implemented based on the greatest need and highest benefit to the general public, from the Sapulpa Trails and proceed with cost estimates for implementation of the Sapulpa/Creek County connective trails portion of the Tulsa Metro Trails Plan as prepared by the Indian Nations Council of Governments; and make repairs to existing trails, i.e. overlay of the 1 mile Kelly Lane Park Trail.

 

1. 8.     LAND ACQUISITION / ABOLITION

Planning and information gathering should be continued for new land purchases and or for the ongoing acquisition of floodplain development areas for the purposes of accommodating future public needs for parks and recreation facilities.  Complete site surveys of all existing City of Sapulpa parks and recreation facility areas, which information is not currently available or on file.

1. 9.     BOOKER T. WASHINGTON RECREATION CENTER IMPROVEMENTS

The BTW Recreation Center provides a “significant service” to the Sapulpa Community and that the building itself has great historical significance.  The facility is in need of modernization work and remodel of the floor plan. The Center has several individual activity rooms, so at times, it is poses challenges for monitor children.  Since the roof has leaked for some time, the Board raised concerns about mold.  Staff is seeking cost estimates for any possible tests that may be deemed necessary.

 

10.  AARON’S ANGELS PARK – Identify Funding Source(s). Complete the Master Plan as designed.

Adopt-a-Park Program

Ongoing opportunities are made available for individual citizens, public and private groups and organizations to help make a difference in their Sapulpa community! We’re sweeping into action today by inviting all Sapulpans young and old to join the Sapulpa Parks Adopt-a-ParkTeam!

The Park Department organized and implemented the Adopt-A-Park Program in 1994 whereby individuals, civic clubs, and other organizations are afforded opportunity to provide volunteer service for their community by adopting a certain park area(s).  Examples of such include; the Sapulpa Rotary Club and the Liberty Park Splash Pad, a $161,000 water playground project which they are currently spearheading to construct and open by May 1, 2005. The local Rotarians Club have pledged funds for the project and secured another $75,000 from the Bartlett Foundation and Collins Foundation for the new aquatics facility, which is scheduled to open in May 2005.

The Kelly Lane Park Admiration Society have, in the past, helped with maintaining color plantings in the park, and the Sapulpa Lions Club, in the past, have provided cash donations for plantings at Liberty Park.

Staff and Park Board are currently organizing a “Friends of the Lakes Club”, which once formed will assist the Parks Department with lake activities, major cleanup efforts after flood events, beautification and construction efforts.  Certain members of the Park Board have been instrumental in many of our lake projects and efforts.  Staff would not have been able to accomplish what we have without the innumerable amount of volunteer hours on behalf the City of Sapulpa to make the City’s parks and   lakes what they are today.

The Sapulpa Park Department extends special invitations to civic clubs, schools, groups, businesses, organizations, and individual citizens to participate in a worthwhile and beneficial community service program.  Numerous volunteer opportunities are made available for citizens to get involved in helping with a variety of fun and community-changing projects.  By volunteering, citizens make a “Major” contribution toward the beautification of our City’s scenic and natural resources.  Good stewardship is vitally important for our environment, for the future of our parks and recreation facilities, fishing, camping and other nature activities within our community.

Good “stewardship” is really the key and is vitally important to our Park Department Staff, the community as a whole, for our environment, for the well being of our citizens, and putting the future of our parks and recreation system on a solid and secure foundation.  By volunteering, people make a “Major” contribution toward the beautification of our community’s scenic and natural resources while obtaining personal results such as self-fulfillment, happiness, contentment, and a true sense of“community” and “belonging”.   We are constantly encouraging citizens to take a vital “ownership”mentality concerning their Sapulpa’s Parks and Recreation Department, system, facilities and programs.

The Parks Department continues efforts to expand volunteer initiatives in order to effectively enhance the Department’s programs and services provided to the community, while also affording citizens and groups the opportunities of contributing directly to society and namely, their own community.  The Park Department works very hard to encourage and continually develop good working relationships with community and neighborhood groups.   Numerous volunteer opportunities were made available to       interested citizens and groups to get involved in helping with a variety of fun and “community-changing” projects.  The City’s new “Overlook Park” Expansion Project is planned for the Winter 2004 and will include a wide variety of donated labor and equipment from local landscaping firm(s).

The Department planned and implemented an urban reforestation project beginning in 1993 as a means of continually replenishing and stabilizing the City’s tree canopy, and for ensuring a growing, healthy future for the City canopy in its public park sites.  During the planning period, the Department estimates that it planted over 600 trees.

From 1993-1996, the City Parks Department acquired $22,000 in forestry grants from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture’s Forestry Division (ODA/FD), planting over 250 trees in Davis Park, Route 66 right-of-way areas, Wickham Park, Hollier Park, Senior Citizens Center, and BTW Recreation Center.

In addition to the plantings at Kelly Lane Park, a new park arboretum, the first of its kind in Creek County, which is used as an educational facility.  The Department installed educational and interpretive signage, and developed an educational brochure as well.

In 2000, a $10,000 Tornado Recovery Program grant was procured from the ODA/FD to replenish trees lost during the storm.

In 2005 and 2006, the Department received forestry and landscaping gifts from the Tulsa Home and Garden Show.  During this 2-year span, the Parks Department planted another 225 trees and over 1,000 shrubs valued at approximately $50,000.

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American Presidents on the importance of “Play”.

“Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.”     — President Thomas Jefferson

“An opportunity for hard, earnest, and joyous play improves health, develops the muscles, expands the lungs, and teaches the moral lessons of attention, self-restraint, courage and patient effort.  I think that every city is under the strongest obligation to its people to furnish to the children from the time they begin to walk until they reach manhood, places within the city walls large enough and laid out in proper form for the playing of all sorts of games which are known to our boys and girls and are liked by them.” — President William H. Taft

“Play is a sculptor which shapes the life of a child. He confides his dreams to his play and becomes what his play is.  This is also true enough of adults to make us seriously concerned for the recreational life of America.  We must make the play time of all children and the free time of all the rest of us richer, more satisfying, more enobling.” — Warren G. Harding

“Through the whole of life, from childhood to old age, there should be opportunities for the practice of those forms of recreation which renew life, and which make for the joy of living.  Therefore, I consider such work as that of our Association, in establishing the best forms of play and guiding the expressions of recreation among our people, to be an essential factor in our national life.“     — President Theodore Roosevelt

“Since play is a fundamental need, playgrounds should be provided for every child as much as schools”. — President Theodore Roosevelt

“It seems to me of real consequence, morally as well as physically, that the children who are growing up, particularly in our great cities, should have spaces for play and knowledge of how to play.” — President Woodrow Wilson

“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.” — President  John F. Kennedy

“We will ask young people across America to give their energy, creativity and commitment to leading their generation away from the health problems that obesity and inactivity can cause.” — President William Clinton

“First, be physically active every day, not just once a week or a couple times a week and say, gosh, I’ve met the goal. It’s every day, try to get some physical activity. And moms and dads, by the way, need to stay physically active as well — not just sons or daughters.” — President George W. Bush

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PER CAPITA COSTS: $29.90 Per Year

(Only $0.08 Cents Per Day!)

Eight cents ($0.08) per day is all it costs to operate your local Sapulpa Parks and Recreation Department and for the improvements it has made in Sapulpa over the past 15 years.  The FY 2006-2007 budget for the City of Sapulpa’s Parks and Recreation Department was approximately $583,000. Thus, the per capita expenditure costs to fund the City of Sapulpa’s Parks and Recreation Department is only $29.90 per year per person.

If this annual cost per person is divided by fifty-two (52) weeks per year it equals only $0.57 cents per week per person.  Then, if this cost per person per week is divided by 7 days per week, the cost to operate and to  maintain the City of Sapulpa’s Parks and Recreation Department is only $ 0.08 cents per day per person.