March 28, 2024

Park office set to move from Krumm Arboretum

The relocation of the parks department office from Krumm Arboretum to the Public Works office was one of many topics discussed at the Newton Park Board meeting Wednesday.

Additional items such as the Maytag caretaker’s house and Westwood Golf Course also garnered lively conversation.

“The game plan is to move my office to the public works building later this year,” parks administrator Nathan Unsworth said. “We have a contract with Project AWAKE that we are going to honor until August, but eventually it will move us over there.”

Unsworth said it will cut down an additional location for the parks department and give the department added help by way of the other departments in the building. Parks is currently operating short staffed following the recent retirement of longtime employees and the decision to hold off hiring new staff to help with budget constraints.

It was stated the city will continue a partnership with Project AWAKE, which owns the arboretum. The exact nature of the agreement will be determined and put into writing at a later time.

Also discussed with potential plans for the Maytag caretaker’s house. Last month, a work group gathered to discuss uses for both the house and the offices at Krumm should the parks office move. With the decision to relocate the office to public works, the house is no longer a potential landing spot, leaving it open for new ideas.

“The general consensus was to explore renovating the house to serve as a rental, kind of a cabin rental idea,” Unsworth said.

Unsworth said the house will still need general renovation work no matter how the house is used. The discussions are still in the beginning phase and no firm decisions have been made.

An additional work group met to discuss Westwood Golf Course and made a list of what the golf course is doing and where it needs to improve. Potential ideas for the facility were also brainstormed for the board to discuss.

The group found the course is well maintained, events and tournaments are run well, staff is helpful, prices are fair and lessons are well administered.

“The golfers really express that it is well maintained,” board member Marc Jackson said.

Areas to improve include addressing the parking lot, broadening the selections in the Pro Shop, increasing the variety of food and drinks, increase corporate outings, add glow in the dark golf and increasing more events among other ideas.

“We have one corporate membership. Of all of our businesses in Newton, we have one membership,” Jackson said. “We need to greatly improve on that. It was very disappointing”

Most of the improvements revolved around the idea of a new clubhouse, which has been a topic of conversation for more than a year. Councilwoman Evelyn George, who often attends the park board meetings, tried to pull focus to ideas for the course that does not include a new clubhouse, which she said will probably not happen any time soon.

“Show us how you can improve. Take a different approach and see which of your ideas will work,” George said. “Now it is time to hone it, what are the things that will prove we are going to get more usage at the golf course? It is about improving the utilization of the golf course with the facilities we have.”

A couple of improvements already underway is the implementation of a payment plan for season pass holders and a five punch pass available for purchase. Further discussions for the course are planned for April.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com