Author: mottparkrecarea

We have had a great year at the Mott Park Recreation Area. We have kept the area up, installed new equipment for new activities and are making plans for the future.

The year started with a donation from Kettering University to support our grounds maintenance efforts. With it, we have maintained our equipment: a large, old, Toro diesel mower, a Toro Workman course truck, a small riding mower and assorted trimming and  cutting equipment. We have purchased diesel fuel and gasoline for the equipment and have kept the mowed areas of the recreation area in pretty good condition. Both the large mower and the truck are in for winter maintenance, and we will likely fully expend the donation when we pay the repair bills.

Shortly after the donation for grounds maintenance, we received a generous donation from The Flint-Town Flyerz disc golf club toward the development of a disc golf course on our property. We received city authorization for the project and got a matching donation for the course from Kettering University. We applied for and received a grant from the Community Foundation to complete funding for the project and, over the summer, we installed concrete tee-pads and galvanized steel targets. The course was completed in September, we inaugurated it with a tournament in October, and in November, we installed course signs marking each hole. We have some more work to accomplish next spring and will be looking for funding to complete and maintain the Mott Park Disc Golf Course.

We also received a donation this Summer toward beautification and security. When the disc golf course opened, we noticed a decrease in the amount of litter left around the recreation area. We attributed this to the increased utilization of the area by our disc golfers and the additional trash containers installed around the course. However, we have had an increase in crime in our parking lot. The city has become concerned about this and we are working with them to increase police patrols around the clubhouse and the parking lot. We have replaced the broken light fixtures around the clubhouse and our maintenance garage and are also looking at increasing the intensity of the parking lot lights. The city is considering replacing the camera and alarm systems in the clubhouse and garage with Internet-connected cameras.

For next year, we plan to install signs and markers around our natural areas and our Monarch Butterfly Waystation to better delineate the areas for our users and our grounds workers. We hope to install solar security lights and security cameras in selected areas around the recreation area. We want to improve our signage to better inform our park users of our facilities. We even hope to provide a porta-potty in our parking lot.

Our BIG project for next year we hope will be the installation of canoe and kayak launch facilities on the south bank of the Flint River, just west of the downriver footbridge near McLaren Hospital. This Paddlers’ Landing project is being sponsored the the Flint River Watershed Coalition which is coordinating planning, permitting, funding, and construction. We have high hopes that this project will bring additional users to our beautiful area to enjoy our park and the river which runs through it.

If you wish to contribute to the maintenance of our area or any of our projects, please go to our contributions page. All donations to the Mott Park Recreation Area are deductible as provided by law on your income taxes.

The 2017 Turkey Trot, the 61st running of this series of races, will be held at the Mott Park Recreation Area on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 23. This continues our tradition of hosting the longest running race series in the state of Michigan.

Late registration will start at 8:00 AM. At 9:00 AM, the 1-mile race for kids 13 and under will start along with the 2-mile race for kids 15 and under. At 9:30, the 3-mile run/walk will start with 8 age categories from 17 and under to over 60.

Registration for those 17 and under is $5.00, $15.00 for adults. If you cannot afford the registration fee, come out and run anyway! The on-line registration site can be found at this link. If you need a paper sign up sheet to turn in at Bauman’s or at the clubhouse on the day of the race, use this link to view and download the PDF file.

Runners are reminded that when the parking lot is full, there is on-street parking on the NORTH side of Nolen Drive and on Weller and Dougherty streets. There is NO PARKING on the SOUTH side of Nolen or behind the curb on the grass.

Disc golfers please note: the disc golf course will be closed to play from dawn on Thanksgiving Day until the last runners are off the course. Thank you for your cooperation. If you show up early, please feel free to run or walk the race.

This weekend, October 21-22, the Mott Park Recreation Area celebrated the Grand Opening of our new disc golf course. On Saturday, we hosted a sanctioned tournament for our home team, the Flint Town Flyerz. Seventy-two disc golfers vied for prizes ranging from discs to cash competing in three categories. The Flyerz brought in a couple portable baskets to lengthen the course for the higher category players and painted “long” tees on the sidewalk and trail.  The weather was ideal with sun, light winds and warm temperatures.

On Sunday, the Flyerz conducted a clinic for 35 youngsters to learn about disc golf. From 10 until noon, holes 1-3, and 18 were reserved for kids up to 16 to learn from experienced chain bashers. All the kids were given three or four FREE DISCS. It was a beautiful day and everyone enjoyed themselves.

There is NO CHARGE to play our disc golf course at any time. It is freely open to the public with no preference given to residents of Flint or our nearby neighborhoods. If the course is reserved for tournament play or a special event, the entrants may be charged an entry fee by the organizers and public play may be suspended during the event.

If you wish to support the operation of our disc golf course, please go to our contributions page to find out how to make a donation.

Our first major project from our Master Plan is getting closer to completion. We have received a contribution from the Flint Town Flyerz Disc Golf Association, a contribution from Kettering University, a grant from the Community Foundation, and have advanced some of our own funds in anticipation of community support. About 1/2 of our funds have been expended and work is proceeding.

A disc golf course is made up of concrete or gravel tee pads (ours will be concrete) from which the golfers launch their discs and targets (chain baskets on poles) which catch the discs (when you are fortunate enough to hit them.) Our local disc golf association, the Flint Town Flyerz, worked with us to lay out the course to minimize any effect on our other recreation area users: walkers, bicyclers, paddlers, fishermen, and especially our butterflies and other wildlife.

We have ordered and received 20 targets (chain baskets) and anticipate installing them later this month, after we set the poles. We will have 18 holes and one practice target, with one target in reserve.

In the meantime, the course designers have laid out 18 tee pads and volunteer students from Kettering dug the holes for them last month and the grounds crew built forms for them last week. This past weekend, about 30 volunteers worked all day to pour 9 tee pads. This coming Saturday, September 16, we will pour the remaining 9 tee pads. If you would like to help out, please come out to the rec area at 9 am (wear OLD clothes, concrete splashes).

Once the tee pads are completed, we will schedule work parties to dig the holes for the target posts, cement the posts in the ground, and then install the baskets. Eventually we expect to have 2 or 3 tee pad locations and 2 or 3 alternative target locations for each hole to allow us to vary the challenge of the course from time to time, just like a standard golf course, but that work is yet to be planned.

The Flint Town Flyerz have found a sponsor to make and donate signage for the course, to identify the holes and direct players around the course. They have also committed to running classes to teach the fundamentals of disc golf to community youngsters and any else who is interested. Our course will become the new home course of the Flint Town Flyerz, but it will be freely open to everyone when not reserved for a tournament. We anticipate a lot of use by the students at Kettering and we hope that we can organize teams of golfers from the nearby neighborhoods to enjoy our course.

If you would like to make a financial contribution to our Mott Park Recreation Area Disc Golf Course, please check out our Contributions page. Donations are deductible on your Federal Income Tax as provided by law.

Our first major project from our Master Plan is getting under way. We have received a contribution from the Flint Town Flyerz Disc Golf Association, are promised a contribution from Kettering University, have been awarded a grant from the Community Foundation, and have advanced some of our own funds in anticipation of community support.

A disc golf course is made up of tee pads (concrete or gravel pads from which the golfers launch their discs) and targets (chain baskets on poles) which catch the discs (when you are fortunate enough to hit them.) We have worked with the disc golf association to lay out the course to minimize any effect on our other recreation area users: walkers, bicyclers, paddlers, fishermen, and especially our butterflies and other wildlife.

Current plans are to order 20 targets (chain baskets) this month and store them until early next month when we will set the poles. We anticipate 18 holes and one practice target, with one in reserve. In the meantime, the course designers have laid out 18 tee pads and volunteer students from Kettering dug the holes for them last Saturday.

We are working to hire a cement contractor to supervise building the forms and installing the substrate. We hope to pour the the pads later in the month or early in August. Holes for the target posts will be dug and the posts cemented early next month and the baskets will be installed soon thereafter, completing the first phase of the course.

The Flint Town Flyerz have found a sponsor to make and donate signage for the course, to identify the holes and direct players around the course. They have also committed to running classes to teach the fundamentals of disc golf to community youngsters and any else who is interested. If we raise enough extra money, we will install additional tee pads for each hole at progressively shorter distances, just like a standard golf course.

Our course will become the new home course of the Flint Town Flyerz, but it will be freely open to everyone when not reserved for a tournament. We anticipate a lot of use by the students at Kettering and we hope that we can organize teams of golfers from the nearby neighborhoods to enjoy our course.

If you would like to contribute to our Mott Park Recreation Area Disc Golf Course, please check out our Contributions page.

 

Springtime is upon us, the spring floods have (we hope) receded, and we are starting a new year at the Mott Park Recreation Area. On Earth Day, we were visited by a group of students from Kettering’s Habitat for Humanity chapter who cut up and removed a lot of branches and logs from the dying oak that fell in the grove south of the clubhouse. We want to thank them, Republic, who picked up many bags of yard waste, and whoever helped themselves to the logs we piled on Nolen at the end of Frank. We noticed they were gone by Monday.

We planted more milkweed in the naturalized areas and some wetlands wildflower mix in the wetter areas of the park. While doing this, we asked a couple of kids on mini-4-wheelers to please find another place to ride because the park is still too wet. We also saw someone on a larger red 4-wheeler that looked like the one belonging to the guy the cops caught and warned last year. He took off across the bridge and exited onto Sheffield. We now have cops dedicated to the University Avenue corridor and if they catch him this year, the city wants us to have him arrested and prosecuted.

We have received funding from a very generous donor to cover our mowing expenses for this year. Thank you very much Kettering University. This will allow us to begin fundraising for one or more of the improvement projects we have planned for the recreation area. We are currently pursuing a matching grant for the first of our projects–we hope to give you more news about this soon.

As I write this, the Flint River Watershed Coalition is working on their Spring River Cleanup. This is also the final day to sign up for the 2nd Annual Woodland Park Academy Color Run which is scheduled to take place in the recreation area on May 13. This is also the last day to register for the Crim Training Program to get ready for the Crim Festival of Races which will skirt the recreation area on August 26. Also this summer, the Flint River Flotilla is scheduled for Saturday, August 5.

Please check our calendar for upcoming events and watch this space for announcements about our plans at the Mott Park Recreation Area.

As the Holidays approach, and with them, the end of 2015, you may take this as your opportunity to make a contribution to our recreation area and have a charitable deduction for your 2015 taxes.

We have (almost) finished the year and our accounts are in the black (although very slightly). The lights are still on in the parking lot and along the sledding hill and may make you feel more comfortable using the area after dark during these long, early winter evenings. The heat is still on (at 55 F) in the clubhouse to keep it from freezing. The mowers are put away for the season and we hope not to use them until April or May.

We could use funds for more lighting and security cameras (we have been trying a borrowed camera in the garage area and it is working well). We could try putting up some holiday lighting again although our fiasco at the bridge last year did not work out so well. Of course, we will need funds to get our grounds maintenance program started again next spring; and we hope to begin the work to modify our “natural areas” to be actual “native plants and wildflower” areas to attract even more birds and butterflies.

If you wish to make a contribution to our area, you can mail us a check or contribute online on our contributions page (above, far right). If you contribute, we will add your name to our list of honor (unless you wish to remain anonymous). We will also send you a receipt for your tax records.

Looking forward to hearing from you, we wish you a very merry holiday season from the Mott Park Recreation Association Board.

Longest running road race in Michigan
One Mile and Two Mile Start @ 9:00AM
Three Mile Starts @ 9:30AM
Registration Opens @ 8:00AM
Online Registration available @ https://runsignup.com/Race/MI/Flint/ThanksgivingDayTurkeyTrot
Please be advised this year we are not admitting bikes or dogs due to problems in prior years. We aim to make this a kid friendly race.
All race proceeds go to the St. Pius Theatre program and the YMCA Summer Camp program

We got our mower back at the end of last week and it’s working great thanks to Nate’s Lawn Shop in Flushing!  Our large Toro 4000D mower had cooling and hydraulic problems and it cost us over $1000 to repair. Our volunteers have begun mowing our meadow areas, starting with the clubhouse area, the sledding hill, and the western area along Sunset near Ballenger (old #4 fairway). We expect to have the whole park mowed by early next week and will then begin cross-cutting.

We wish to thank the supporters who have donated to support our mowing program since we set up our on-line contribution account. If you wish to join them to help us finish the summer mowing season, please visit our Contributions page or send a check to Mott Park Recreation Area, 1001 Dupont St., Flint, MI 48504. Remember, we are a 501(c)(3) organization and donations are tax deductible as provided by law. Please consult your tax adviser for more information.

We’re sorry if the recreation area grass is getting a bit long, but our large Toro 4000D mower is down with cooling and hydraulic problems. It has been at the repair shop for over three weeks, and we hope to have it back soon. We have already paid a $600 deposit on the repairs and hope the total isn’t too much higher. We wish to thank the supporters who have donated to support our mowing program since we set up our on-line contribution account. If you wish to join them to help us get our mower back and finish the summer mowing season, please visit our Contributions page or send a check to Mott Park Recreation Area, 1001 Dupont St., Flint, MI 48504. Remember, we are a 501(c)(3) organization and donations are tax deductible as provided by law. Please consult your tax adviser for more information.