Outdoor pickleball and tennis courts, mountain bike trails and playgrounds. 

Are these amenities - among many others - meeting the needs for Mexico residents?

The city of Mexico Parks and Recreation Department wants to know this information, and the department is seeking people’s feedback on its many offerings by asking the public to go online and take the Master Plan Community Input Survey. The survey, which began in May, is open until the week of July 7 and can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/mexico_mo_parks_and_rec

Survey participants will be asked about conditions of parks, available programs and activities and priorities of parks, among other topics. Surveys take about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. 

The Parks and Recreation Department is developing a master plan that will guide the future of parks, trails and recreation services over the next 10 to 15 years, according to the survey’s introduction, and the public’s input is crucial to the success of the master plan development to “ensure the plan addresses items critical to the Mexico community.” City officials are just beginning the multi-year master planning process and are seeking the public’s input.

The city has 11 parks and there are no current plans to add a new park, said Parks and Recreation Director Chad Unterreiner.

“But some of that (direction) will come depending on the master plan feedback as far as the metric goes because of how Mexico is spread out, to where if we need to add a new park and what’s the viability of the new park,” he said, adding that officials are waiting on the master plan findings. 

He said to his knowledge, this work will be the first conceptual master plan for the parks system, and this type of survey gives everybody the opportunity to provide input, have their voice be heard and play a part in the parks and recreation system. SWT Design is the contractor overseeing the parks and rec master plan and administering the survey.  

“So essentially, all the survey results go to them,” Unterreiner said.

He said, though, that if someone fills out a print copy of the survey, he will scan it and send it to SWT. Printed surveys are available at the Parks and Recreation office at city hall.

“Hopefully, by the end of the calendar year our plan is to have everything completed,” he said.

He said there have been two community engagement meetings in town and the city had received 387 surveys as of late May. The survey is for both Mexico residents and non-residents, and the reason for asking non-residents for their views is because Mexico is the population point for the county and many people visit the town.

Unterreiner said it was encouraging to see the many responses so far and that another community engagement meeting will be held after survey results arrive. 

“So, our goal is to get 600 surveys and the reason where that number comes from is 5% of the population ballpark,” he said.

The city “without a doubt” provides a good number of parks for families and individuals to enjoy and that they feature a number of amenities, he said.

“We have an incredible park system so far, with the amount of parks we have, with the amount of activities,” he said. “There is almost something to do for everybody of all age groups in a park somewhere.”