While we'd love to learn as much about your ideas for the future of parks, we recognize some of you have less time than others. How would you prefer to participate and provide your feedback about Parks of the Future?
I'd like to fill out the complete survey (approx 10 minutes).
How often does your household use parks, recreation facilities, or programs in a year?
Regularly (9 or more times a year)
What do you feel are the top three functions provided by Montgomery Parks and the Montgomery County Recreation?
Montgomery Parks offers many opportunities to promote fitness and health within its 418 parks, including paved and natural surface trails, fitness equipment, amenities to exercise such as ice skating rinks, tennis centers and numerous athletic fields.
Montgomery Parks offers hundreds of athletic fields used for a wide variety of sports such as baseball, soccer, cricket and more. There are also basketball and tennis courts, ice skating rinks, an indoor sports pavilion among other amenities promoting sports in our parks.
Natural areas support a variety of ecological communities, and they form the backbone of our park system. Montgomery Parks recognizes these areas provide respite for park patrons and ecological benefits. The stewardship of these resources is a key component of a successful park system.
How would you rate the agency's parks, facilities and services in meeting the communities needs?
Parks - 4 Excellent
Recreational facilities - 3 Good
Recreational programs - 5
Are there any segments of the community that need to be better served by Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation? If so, who are they and how can they be better served?
No response.
What do you believe are the three most important issues / challenges facing Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation in the next five years?
1) Accommodating the needs of the rapidly growing sport of pickleball. 2) Better maintenance of some of the older community centers, especially in regards to lighting and cleanliness.
Why did you choose these top three functions?
1) The popularity of pickleball is exploding. At many MoCo rec centers offering three PB nets (which accommodate 12 players), the waits are frequently too long between games, due to 20 or more players showing up to play. If rec centers are limited to providing only three nets by the size of their gyms, then they should offer more dates/times when pickleball can be played.
2) I have fallen playing pickleball in two rec centers (Germantown and Potomac) due to sticky spots on the floors, luckily escaping broken bones or serious injury. I am not the only player to have fallen, especially at Potomac. The rec centers MUST clean the gym floors daily, with special attention to wiping up sweat or spilled drinks. The floors should also be swept frequently, because the broken badminton feathers and small pieces paper that are frequently on the gym floors also present a falling hazard. Finally, there are some gyms I cannot play in because they are too dark (e.g. Bauer Rec Center) or because in daytime glare is a problem. The county should replace burnt-out lightbulbs more often than once of year and install brighter ones overall .
What amenities, programs or experiences are missing that would better support your recreation needs that we should be planning for in the future?
During the fall, winter, and spring, I play pickleball almost every day of the week, in a wide variety of MoCo and municipal recreation centers. It is my main form of exercise. Once summer arrives, pickleball is severely cut back in order to accommodate children's day camp programs in the rec center gyms. The county currently does not provide adequate places or hours for pickleballers to play during the summer, either indoor or outdoor. Adding pickleball lines to ALL existing MoCo tennis courts would help alleviate that problem.
How would you describe your household? Please check ALL that apply.
Someone age 55 and over lives here
Single-family detached house or townhouse / duplex
Lived in current house 15 or more years
White
Please provide your zip code here to help us to determine where facilities and services are needed.
20886
Do you have any additional comments or suggestions to help Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation staff plan for the County's future parks, recreational facilities or programs?
The county should understand and accommodate the rapidly exploding popularity of pickleball. In the near term, more days/hours for indoor pickleball play should be added to the MoCo rec centers, and ALL MoCo tennis courts should have pickleball lines added. This does not ruin the courts for tennis players, rather simply expands the usage of the courts. Adding PB lines to tennis courts allows whole families to play PB outdoors on summer weekends and evenings when working parents are off.
In the long term, there should be dedicated pickleball courts built, with fencing to trap the balls.
Pickleball is growing in popularity because it's an easy sport to start up, can accommodate players of all ages in the same game (great for family play), has low equipment costs, and is great fun. PLUS, possibly its most important asset: pickleball promotes physical activity in people of all ages in a county where sedentary lifestyles are the norm.
Open Town Hall is not a certified voting system or ballot box. As with any public comment process, participation in Open Town Hall is voluntary. The responses in this record are not necessarily representative of the whole population, nor do they reflect the opinions of any government agency or elected officials.
While we'd love to learn as much about your ideas for the future of parks, we recognize some of you have less time than others. How would you prefer to participate and provide your feedback about Parks of the Future?
How often does your household use parks, recreation facilities, or programs in a year?
What do you feel are the top three functions provided by Montgomery Parks and the Montgomery County Recreation?
Montgomery Parks offers many opportunities to promote fitness and health within its 418 parks, including paved and natural surface trails, fitness equipment, amenities to exercise such as ice skating rinks, tennis centers and numerous athletic fields.
Montgomery Parks offers hundreds of athletic fields used for a wide variety of sports such as baseball, soccer, cricket and more. There are also basketball and tennis courts, ice skating rinks, an indoor sports pavilion among other amenities promoting sports in our parks.
Natural areas support a variety of ecological communities, and they form the backbone of our park system. Montgomery Parks recognizes these areas provide respite for park patrons and ecological benefits. The stewardship of these resources is a key component of a successful park system.
How would you rate the agency's parks, facilities and services in meeting the communities needs?
Are there any segments of the community that need to be better served by Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation? If so, who are they and how can they be better served?
No response.What do you believe are the three most important issues / challenges facing Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation in the next five years?
1) Accommodating the needs of the rapidly growing sport of pickleball. 2) Better maintenance of some of the older community centers, especially in regards to lighting and cleanliness.
Why did you choose these top three functions?
1) The popularity of pickleball is exploding. At many MoCo rec centers offering three PB nets (which accommodate 12 players), the waits are frequently too long between games, due to 20 or more players showing up to play. If rec centers are limited to providing only three nets by the size of their gyms, then they should offer more dates/times when pickleball can be played.
2) I have fallen playing pickleball in two rec centers (Germantown and Potomac) due to sticky spots on the floors, luckily escaping broken bones or serious injury. I am not the only player to have fallen, especially at Potomac. The rec centers MUST clean the gym floors daily, with special attention to wiping up sweat or spilled drinks. The floors should also be swept frequently, because the broken badminton feathers and small pieces paper that are frequently on the gym floors also present a falling hazard. Finally, there are some gyms I cannot play in because they are too dark (e.g. Bauer Rec Center) or because in daytime glare is a problem. The county should replace burnt-out lightbulbs more often than once of year and install brighter ones overall .
What amenities, programs or experiences are missing that would better support your recreation needs that we should be planning for in the future?
During the fall, winter, and spring, I play pickleball almost every day of the week, in a wide variety of MoCo and municipal recreation centers. It is my main form of exercise. Once summer arrives, pickleball is severely cut back in order to accommodate children's day camp programs in the rec center gyms. The county currently does not provide adequate places or hours for pickleballers to play during the summer, either indoor or outdoor. Adding pickleball lines to ALL existing MoCo tennis courts would help alleviate that problem.
How would you describe your household? Please check ALL that apply.
Please provide your zip code here to help us to determine where facilities and services are needed.
20886Do you have any additional comments or suggestions to help Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation staff plan for the County's future parks, recreational facilities or programs?
The county should understand and accommodate the rapidly exploding popularity of pickleball. In the near term, more days/hours for indoor pickleball play should be added to the MoCo rec centers, and ALL MoCo tennis courts should have pickleball lines added. This does not ruin the courts for tennis players, rather simply expands the usage of the courts. Adding PB lines to tennis courts allows whole families to play PB outdoors on summer weekends and evenings when working parents are off.
In the long term, there should be dedicated pickleball courts built, with fencing to trap the balls.
Pickleball is growing in popularity because it's an easy sport to start up, can accommodate players of all ages in the same game (great for family play), has low equipment costs, and is great fun. PLUS, possibly its most important asset: pickleball promotes physical activity in people of all ages in a county where sedentary lifestyles are the norm.