This January the Guthrie Center Parks and Recreation Board revealed several renovation plans to Mitchell Park. While the full plans will probably take a few years to implement, acting Board President Chris Bunde is ready to get started.

A Guthrie Center resident for nearly 20 years, Bunde has seen the gradual decline of portions to the park. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio the importance of starting some aspects of the project early, instead of waiting for the project to be fully funded. “We know that as a small community we don’t have the funding to bite off that entire thing all at once. So working in conjunction with the City Council we want to take a prudent approach to say, ‘Now that we have this plan, we don’t want it to stagnate for three or four years while we try to organize the funding for the entire thing.’”

Bunde is hopeful that by making small improvements continuously, they will pick up momentum and complete the whole project at a much more efficient pace. He specifically mentioned public restroom renovations as a priority in the early stages. “While it’s one of the more expensive parts of the plan, the ability to have a standing public restroom that can be accessed at any time I think will really pull people down to the park so that they don’t have to leave. They can have extend amount of time in the park and enjoy it.”

He also thinks the disc golf course will be a fresh addition to the park, while keeping the majority of the existing landscape intact. To hear more on the Mitchell Park renovation plans, listen to today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program.