Cookeville City Council Approves Final Draft Of Leisure Services Master Plan

Cookeville City Council approved the final draft of its ten-year Leisure Services Master Plan Thursday evening.

Leisure Services Director Rick Woods said the plan will help in efforts to get parks and recreation grants for Cookeville.

“And this is a requirement for eligibility for grants, including the LPRF grant administered by TDEC,” Woods said. “I’m very pleased with the outcome of this planning process and I believe this plan will serve our department and our community very well over the next few years.”

Woods said that there were no major changes from the previous draft to the final draft.

Over the five and a half month process, the Leisure Services Department worked with consultant group Kimley-Horn to develop the plan. Consultant Alisha Eiley said that it has been an enjoyable partnership working with the community.

“As you all know Cookeville is a very special place,” Eiley said. “We’ve had a great experience working with a very passionate staff and department and stakeholders such as yourselves and the community as a whole. We had a very great turnout from the survey results and all of our public meetings were well-attended.”

Vice-Mayor Laurin Wheaton said that she also enjoyed this development process.

“It’s really exciting stuff that we can be doing for the city,” Wheaton said.

Woods said that immediate plans will be further development of the new property at Cane Creek Park. As for future development, he said that the department will look into the prospect of an aquatic center, one of the biggest asks from survey responders.

Among the other short-term recommendations include examining long-term programming for young children and senior citizens at Cane Creek Recreation Center, work on Cinderella Park, and parking updates near the Heart of the City Playground.

While the biggest ask from the community was for an aquatic center or pool, Woods said they will also look into other big asks from the community. These include wanting more connectivity in the city via trails.