- The city's first full disc golf course is coming to the former Sycamore driving range.
- Some parents are concerned about the location because it's near Fenner Nature Preschool.
- Video explains both sides of the debate.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
"My two biggest concerns are safety and maintaining the integrity of the nature preschool," said East Lansing resident Katie Luther.
Katie Luther has a child at the outdoor-focused Fenner Nature Preschool off of Mt. Hope Avenue near where the city of Lansing plans to put an 18-hole disc golf course.
"As a teacher myself, if I'm looking outside and watching disc, golfers golf, I'm going to not take my kids outside for their own safety. And that's going to limit the preschooler's time outside," Luther said.
City leaders say disc golf is popular in the area and this location is a good fit for a full-size course.
"It's about a 53-acre park," said Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Lansing Brett Kaschinske.
"It has the parking out there. It is one of the few things that we're able to put into an area that may flood for instance, from the Sycamore Creek," Kaschinske said.
Director of Parks and Recreation Brett Kaschinske has heard some of the concerns.
But he says kids will be supervised by adults while at the school.
And they expect the course to see the most people playing on it on the weekends.
"There seems to be this preschool versus disc golf. And really, as a parks and recreation department, we are for all recreation activities, we are for all ages. And we think that these two can and will coexist out there on the facility," Kaschinske said.
Other parents I talked to aren't convinced.
And told me they hoped for more transparency throughout the process.
"If you look at the plans on the park website today, it's still not listed as one of the capital improvement projects that funding is needed for when we asked about it. He says the money's coming from ARPA funds and won't give any other explanation," said Laura Nieusma
In an email to Fox 47 Kaschinske says:
"The money is coming from ARPA funds that have been allocated by Lansing city council to the parks and recreation department. We do not feel that this project requires additional funds for an engineering and design drawings to construct the course. We did not engage in an engineering and design process for Ingham park and we are very happy with the results there."
Kaschinskye says they anticipate that the golf course will go up in the late spring or early summer.
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