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Parks Department reports $725,000 in grants/donations and 12,500 volunteer hours in 2024
Summary
Oshkosh Parks Department presented its 2024 impact report: about $725,000 in grants/donations across programs, roughly 553 department-sponsored events with nearly 32,000 participants, 553 volunteers contributing about 12,500 hours (valued at ~$413,000), and continued investments in park projects and accessibility upgrades.
Parks staff presented the department’s 2024 impact report, detailing grants, volunteer contributions, program attendance and capital and operations work completed during the year.
The department recorded 360 grants and donations in 2024 totaling nearly $725,000 across pools, special events, the senior center and zoo programs. Staff reported 553 department-sponsored events with nearly 32,000 participants and 553 volunteers who contributed more than 12,500 hours; staff estimated the value of volunteer hours at more than $413,000. The senior center’s visits returned to just over 50,000 in 2024, resembling pre-COVID attendance levels.
Highlights included completion of the city’s Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (required every five years), opening of the new Baron Fox exhibit (which attracted more than 2,000 visitors), and a zoo attendance figure staff cited at just over 102,000. Operations work noted in the report included new playground equipment and rubber surfacing at Fourth Parallel Park; path and bridge repairs at Rouge Park; West Side Trail construction near Sawyer Creek; upgrades at Menominee Park to replace gravel paths with asphalt and improve access to Lakefly Café; and re-plastering of the leisure pool at Powell Community Waterpark.
Staff also described landscape and urban forestry work: 276 trees planted, 1,963 trees pruned, 79 trees removed and a $25,000 urban forestry grant (a $50,000 project with the city’s match coming from the Community Foundation’s Taking Root fund). Special-event permits reached a record 104 in 2024, an 11% increase from 2023. Staff said impact reports for prior years are available on the Parks Department web page.
Board members asked about neighborhood requests to use vacant city lots for small green spaces; staff said the department works with neighborhood associations on infrastructure while asking volunteers to help maintain adopted sites. The report was informational; no board action was taken.
