New Partnerships Wanted To Renovate Indy Parks

Indianapolis is calling on business and nonprofit leaders to collaborate on ways to improve its parks.

The goal is to make transformations without spending city money.

The system contains over 11,000 acres of land, seven regional parks, 21 community parks, and 73 neighborhood parks.

Parks Director John Williams says the department identified $46 million of needed renovations and thinks establishing public-private partnerships is the best option.

"It just became apparent to me that we have to do something different than what we have done in the past because what we found is we continue to defer maintenance, we continue to defer capital improvements and those kinds of things," said Williams.  "That just continues to exacerbate the problem."

The city will officially send out requests for proposal Monday and accept them through January 31.

Williams says shoring up Indianapolis’ parks is important for the overall health of the community.

"The parks are, I think, a very vital link to the overall viability and economic vitality of a city," he said.  "Those cities that have really burgeoning, good parks departments you can see that they also have a pretty solid economy.  They also have a lot of ingenious things that are going on."