The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is hosting a series of meetings across the state to ask Iowans what they want from their state park system and from their local park in particular. 

The DMACC Conference Center in Newton will be the site of one of these meetings, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9. The two-hour long meeting is designed to collect input from state park users that will help provide direction for services and amenities to keep Iowa’s state parks premier destinations for years to come.

“These meetings are designed to allow our users to tell us directly what they want from their state park, how we can improve their local state park, and where they see their state park in five years,” said Kevin Szcodronski, chief of the Iowa DNR’s State Parks Bureau. “We will have some staff on hand to answer questions, but this meeting is for people who come to our parks to talk about what is important to them, their community and their family.”