city\u2019s population continues to grow<\/a>, Page said these plans are crucial. According to the last U.S. Census, there were more than 100,000 people living in Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPage said the focus is to create spaces with children in mind and to make sure everyone has access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe most important element is to keep kids off the street and give them something constructive to do, so not only do we offer all sorts of programs in our recreation center, we have all these different activities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The department plans in 10-year increments to set aside funding for park projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Page said right now, recreational sports are a big draw, and it\u2019s tough to find enough fields to meet the need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For residents like Darrel Congdon and his family, parks are a perk of living here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a draw to the community, it brings people to eat at restaurants and shop at shops and it\u2019s very beneficial to bring families down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congdon\u00a0has lived in Polk County his entire life and he\u2019s watched the growth. He said he would like to see more outdoor spaces to enjoy time with his granddaughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMore green space, more shaded areas for kids to play \u2014 we need more parks and places like this for people to spread out and go,\u201d Congdon said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Page is hoping Lake Crago Park will provide some of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Located in Lakeland, it\u2019s one of the newest parks in Polk County and part of a plan that will have two soccer fields, a multipurpose field, picnic tables, and a brand-new playground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen we open this, it\u2019ll be used every day. They\u2019ll have soccer practice every night and then games and tournaments every weekend,\u201d Page said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The park is expected to open in late August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Page continues to plan for the future, she envisions plenty of green space on the horizon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With warmer days ahead, more people are exploring the outdoors and looking for parks to enjoy. Polk County is seeing just that, but it faces issues as its population grows… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":47767,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/download-3.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[7591],"tags":[9130],"class_list":["post-47766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-of-lakeland","tag-lakeland-parks-and-recreation-expands-its-parks-as-the-community-grows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47768,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47766\/revisions\/47768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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