Over the past several years, Indianola Parks and Rec has seen steady usage of park facilities and programs, although not in traditional ways and has seen a large shift to more outdoor activities. Parks and Rec Director Doug Bylund tells KNIA News it was good to see many residents take advantage of some of the only activities that were available and safe.

“Some of the things that we saw with COVID-19 and the pandemic, was our trail and park usage was increased tremendously. While at the same time our recreation programs, especially the indoor ones were down but the usage the parks had was much higher than the loss on the recreation side. So one good thing that I think came out of it was people kind of got themselves back to their family, got back to the community, got back to small things they can do together. They realized how important parks are, and how important it is to go and watch the birds, or see a deer walk across the trail, and things that they may have lost track of in our hustle-bustle life that we’ve had.”

Bylund also said the pool was used heavily by Indianola residents this past year as well.