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Oshkosh parks department reports $725,000 in grants and nearly 32,000 event participants in 2024
Summary
The Parks Department presented its 2024 impact report showing roughly 360 grants/donations totaling nearly $725,000, 553 department-sponsored events with about 32,000 participants, more than 12,500 volunteer hours and a zoo attendance figure just over 102,000.
Parks Department staff presented the department’s 2024 impact report to the board, summarizing grants, attendance, volunteer contributions and capital and operations highlights.
Key figures presented: the department recorded about 360 grants and donations totaling nearly $725,000 in 2024; it sponsored 553 events with nearly 32,000 participants; volunteers logged about 12,500 hours, a valuation staff estimated at roughly $413,000. The Menominee Park Zoo attendance was reported at just over 102,000 visitors for 2024; special-event attendance at the zoo exceeded 23,000. The senior center recorded just over 50,000 visits in 2024, returning to a pre-COVID level staff described as a department goal.
Operations and capital highlights listed in the report included completion of the Pratt Trail Road reconstruction, replacement of playground equipment and poured-in-place surfacing at Fourth Parallel Park, the West Side Trail work, roof replacement and repainting of the Menominee Park gazebo, gravel-to-asphalt path improvements at the zoo, removal and renovation of the Menominee Park beach house, the new Baron Fox exhibit at the zoo and Lakeshore Park opening in February 2024.
The report captured tree and landscape operations: 276 trees planted, 1,963 pruned and 79 removed; staff also maintain roughly 100 downtown planters. The department cited $330,000 in sponsorships/donations for Pollock Pool projects, including Community Foundation support for replastering the lazy river. Staff also noted a successful $25,000 urban forestry grant from the DNR, matched by Community Foundation funds, and other grant awards for arts and cultural programming.
Staff framed volunteer and partner contributions as significant to department capacity and highlighted cross-agency and nonprofit partners — Discover Oshkosh, the Community Foundation and local donors — in funding and programming. The board asked clarifying questions about neighborhood associations adopting small city-owned lots as pocket parks and about natural-planting management at Ames Point; staff said they are working through those initiatives and a community group (Urban Ecology Oshkosh) will present a work plan in June.
