New London committees approve 2026—2030 comprehensive outdoor recreation plan

The joint Parks & Recreation and Economic Development committees on Dec. 2 voted to approve the City of New London's 2026—2030 comprehensive outdoor recreation plan as presented in the packet.

Ginger, who led the agenda item, opened by thanking the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission for additional funding that helped supplement the report and asked committee members to adopt the plan. "I want to extend a huge thank you to East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, for the work that they did to complete this report," she said. A motion to approve the plan was made and seconded by committee members; the motion carried on a voice vote.

Committee members emphasized that the plan is intended to guide park improvements across multiple properties, including Anchor Park and St. John's Park, and said further committee-level work will follow. Gingernoted several items for future committee attention, including a fuller conversation about tennis courts and community concerns around installing dedicated pickleball courts in neighborhood parks.

Ginger described elements of the planning process that informed the proposal, including pop-up surveys and site visits at the Washington Center, and she said the planning work informed program, circulation and event considerations for downtown park spaces. Committee members asked for follow-up engineering and cost estimates for higher-cost elements and said any major changes would be phased and linked to grant opportunities.

The committee did not adopt any site-specific construction contracts at the meeting. The next step for several projects named in the plan is staff-prepared cost estimates and, where appropriate, formal requests for proposals or grant applications.