Draft for Riverside Park Master Plan revealed

Mantorville residents, business owners and representatives from various organizations filled the city council chambers to take a first glance at what Riverside Park could look like in the future. “I was pleased to see so many community members took part in this meeting. It really shows how important Riverside Park and the Zumbro River is to this community,” said Zumbro Watershed Partnership Education Coordinator Kevin Strauss. The meeting on Jan. 7, was the result of two prior community meetings (one in April and one in October.) The first two meetings were used to gather input from community members about what future improvements they would like to see done to the park. The improvements are part of the Educational Recreation Sites project, which is a partnership between Mantorville, the Park and Recreation Board, the Zumbro Watershed Partnership, the Southeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership and the Center for Changing Landscapes (CCL). “For our specific project the goal was to do education and give people better access to the Zumbro River and all of its pieces in the Zumbro Watershed,” Strauss said. “One benefit of this project is we are developing a master plan, that the community has had a huge hand in, for where they’d like to head for their park.” The project, which is funded through the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR), is one of six projects to improve recreation and education. Mantorville along with two other sites are scheduled to be completed this year, with the remaining three next year. All of the projects must be completed by June 2018.