ROTHBURY — A pair of representatives from Prein & Newhof, Barbara Marczak and Matt Levandoski, came to a special meeting at the Rothbury Village Hall Tuesday night to solicit community feedback on what people want from the public park spaces in the village.
The company is consulting on the village’s five-year parks and recreation plan, a prerequisite for applying for grants the village seeks to update the parks.
The meeting, which included over a dozen village residents, was ostensibly about Czarny Park, located behind the old school building in Rothbury, but there was some discussion of the village park next to the hall as well.
Some potential ideas presented for Czarny Park included an improved parking situation and the renovation of the basketball court at the park, which was once a tennis court. Given the rise of pickleball nationwide, the possibility exists the village could seek grant funds to turn the area into a pickleball court.
Also discussed were trails; Rothbury’s village park connects to the Hart-Montague bicycle trail. Levandoski said the state is “bonkers for trails” and any grant application involving trails stands a better chance of being approved. He mentioned the ongoing project to create a bicycle trail that runs from the western end of the Upper Peninsula all the way to Belle Isle on the eastern side of the state.
Levandoski said another potential idea for the village park was building new playground equipment to replace the aging swing sets in the back half of the park. When a public commenter asked how he viewed the Rothbury parks, Levandoski said he felt their current uses are in line with what he would expect.
