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Zionsville parks staff report summer openings, trail counts and exploratory concession strategy
Summary
Parks superintendent and programming staff reported the opening of Carpenter Nature Preserve, progress on Lincoln Park improvements, 19,650 rail‑trail encounters in June, expanded mountain‑bike trails and an exploratory concession stand operation that opened June 20; the board discussed deferred maintenance and financial re‑appropriation options.
At the July 8 meeting of the Zionsville Board of Parks and Recreation, staff outlined recent capital work, programming participation and operational issues as summer activity ramps up.
Jared, the parks superintendent, told the board that Carpenter Nature Preserve officially opened to the public June 22 and that staff inspected the Wild Air/Johnson Woods trail put in by the Wild Air development team. He reported the maintenance team created 115 work orders in June and completed 105; notable work included installing a memorial bench at Starkey Park. On the Big 4 rail trail counters the department recorded 19,650 encounters in June — 10,277 cyclists and 9,423 pedestrians — and staff said they report usage data annually to the Department of Natural Resources while considering additional counters to capture usage fluctuations.
On capital projects, Jared said mass grading for the Lincoln Park refresh is complete and the fountain base has been poured; footers for a gazebo and bases for lighting will be poured in the coming weeks, with the gazebo and fountain pieces expected to progress in August. He also reported expansion of mountain‑bike trails from roughly 1.25 miles to about 5 miles and coordination with the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association for a walk‑through ahead of an August grand opening.
Mindy, programming staff, reported 1,670 walk‑ins at Scienceville Nature Center for June and described summer programming highlights: a nature program for the Zionsville Police Department Teen Academy, junior Indiana Master Naturalists, Park and Play events, and yoga in the park. She said the concession stand had a soft opening June 5 and fully opened June 20 after the Mulberry Field splash pad was repaired. The stand is being run as an exploratory operation this summer; staff are tracking hours, sales and menu items to inform next season. For special vending days — such as a pizza‑by‑the‑slice partnership with Greek’s Pizzeria — the department will seek 10% of vendor proceeds or receipts as part of the permit terms and will require daily sales receipts for verification.
Board members pressed for clarity on staffing and monitoring of concession operations and asked whether adding local food trucks or changing the menu would trigger different health‑department permitting; Mindy said the current menu is limited to maintain the permit class and that more complex offerings (deli meats, hot food) would trigger a different set of health requirements.
On finance, the chair asked about a $465,000 contingency tied to the Carpenter project. Jared said the project is likely to finish under budget and that unspent allocations would remain in the parks nonreverting capital fund for future reallocation; donation‑designated funds would continue to be treated as donations and billed accordingly. Board members discussed cataloging deferred maintenance items to be “shovel ready” when funds become available and asked staff to separate mowing costs in future reports to better track in‑house versus contracted expenses.
The board approved routine claims and adjourned.
