City seeks community input on Strawn Park improvements
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The city of Columbia is seeking public input on proposed improvements to Strawn Park.
The city held a meeting Wednesday night to present the upgrades to Harmony Bends Disc Golf Course. Potential improvements include replacing boulder crossings with low water crossings, improving drainage on parts of the course, adding a drinking fountain and ADA sidewalk improvements.
According to the city’s website, Strawn Park hosts one of the city’s four disc golf courses. The city also hosts the Mid-America Open Disc Golf Tournament.
“The community is growing and then bringing national attention to it with some of the major tournaments and whatnot we've had in town has been super fun to see,” Nate Duker, a Columbia resident, said.
The city has spent more than $359,000 to improve the park since 2016. In 2020, Parks and Rec increased parking and added a restroom. From 2021 to 2023, several streambank mitigation projects took place.
“The quality, of course, has increased," said Matt Boehner, a senior planner with Columbia Parks and Recreation. "It's becoming much more of a niche design and dedicated facility instead of just baskets around existing park amenities such as baseball fields that you saw 30 years ago. That's kind of how the sport developed and was born."
According to the city’s website, it is funding the new project with money collected from the 2021 Park Sales Tax.
