SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Keep your brackets handy not only for basketball, but for your favorite area parks.
The temps are beautiful, the parks are there.
Brett Kollars, assistant parks director
It’s down to the final four parks in the Sioux Falls Park Madness: Terrace/ Japanese Gardens vs. Tuthill, and Great Bear Recreation vs. Mary Jo Arboretum.
“It’s a simple goal of having fun,” Brett Kollars, assistant parks director, said.
“We’re really excited that people are supporting us,” Dan Grider, general manager of Great Bear Ski Valley, said. “Now, it’s all for the win.”
Click here to cast your vote in the final four. Voting ends on Saturday, March 22. Then, the championship round will kickoff from March 23-26. A park champion will be declared afterward.
It’s all for the win.
Dan Grider, Great Bear Ski Valley
This is the first year for the Sioux Falls Park Madness tournament. City staff hope to make it an annual event. Even though there are 80 parks, only 64 parks were seeded by the Parks & Recreation’s district parks supervisors.
“It was a painful exercise,” Kollars said. “We take pride in all our parks.”
Winter activities roundup
Sioux Falls park officials say it was a tough year for winter activities, as the parks are reliant on Mother Nature’s work.
“With the sporadic temperatures, it’s hard to gauge ice rink attendance, sledding availability,” Kollars said. “But people made the most of it while we had snow and cold temps.”
Jacobson Plaza will maintain refrigerated ice for skating, Kollars said. He says this will help parks staff be less reliant on outdoor conditions.
Despite a warm winter, Great Bear Ski Valley officials say the park got a lot of usage.
“It was an odd year, we didn’t have any real snow till February,” Grider said. “But, we’re happy with the season. We met our revenue and visitor goals.”
“They’re able to make their own snow,” Kollars said about Great Bear, “We rely more on a natural kind. So, they had a successful year. We’re really happy about that.”
According to Grider, Great Bear officials counted 4,700 visits just in the winter season for skiing and snow tubing. That’s a little more than typical, Grider said. Usually, there’s about 4,300 visits.
Springtime park expectations
According to Kollars, spring is one of the busiest times of the year for park officials.
“Spring requires work,” Kollars said. “We’re staffing up. We bring out an army of seasonals on all fronts.” These jobs include lifeguards, operations, and recreation teams.
Kollars asks that residents wait a few weeks for facilities to open, like bathrooms or drinking fountains. Parks officials need to wait for all freezing conditions to go away before reopening those features.
“Otherwise, get out there,” Kollars said. “The temps are beautiful, the parks are there.”
Grider says he’s already looking ahead to summer.
“Right now, we’re get ready for a music festival in July,” Grider said.
