Monroe Parks & Recreation

Mike Farrell, Director, Monroe Parks and Recreation presented an overview of the Monroe Parks and Recreation Department at our meeting of July 11th.  The department oversees and maintains 12 parks and landscaped areas within the City, and 10 miles of trails.  Part of the department’s function is to advocate for recreation.  Given limited resources and increasing economic pressure, they have had to prioritize and cut back in many areas, in spite of increased usage of the parks.  To help fulfill their mission, they try to partner with other organizations, utilize volunteers, and are always seeking to be as efficient as possible.

Monroe Parks is currently looking for volunteers to work in the Julie V. Morse Community Garden.  The Garden provides a significant amount of fresh produce for the Sky Valley Food Bank as well as gardening opportunities for neighboring residents.  Some of its infrastructure is deteriorating after a decade of use, and needs repair.  .  The Rotary Club provided support at its inception, and this may be a project that the Club would like to take on. 

Notable is the effort to partner with Monroe Public Schools to develop three new all-weather fields.  Neither organization has the resources to do this on its own, but by partnering, they have managed to secure a $200,000 grant towards the $600,000 cost of development. 

The Monroe Rotary Club is also a prime example of a partnering organization.  Monroe Rotary Field was a vision of the Club, and it lead the campaign to design, fund and build the field which is now maintained by the Parks Dept. and is used practically every daylight hour, by a diverse constituency. 

The Club is now renewing its efforts to raise funds to complete the next phase of the field, which will be the building of bathrooms and a concession area.  The City has allocated $50,000 toward this project and the Monroe Rotary Club has raised an additional $38,000 designated for this project.  Watch for more on this! 

As the City grows, the demand for Parks will increase.  We are fortunate to have a strong and innovative Parks Department that will facilitate the best recreational opportunities possible for Monroe residents and visitors alike.