ALPENA — The City of Alpena has already accomplished much of what it’s planned for Starlite Beach, but now the city is beginning the process of updating the list of possible projects for Mich-e-ke-wis Park, which officials hope will increase usage at the park.

At Monday’s Alpena Municipal Council meeting, the council voted to hire the Northeast Michigan Council of Governments for $12,500 to help update the plan, which has remained as-is for the last 14 years.

Planning and Development Director Adam Poll said NEMCOG will help to collect community input and begin to sort through that feedback to create a list of ideas that could work at the park.

“We want to get the maximum amount of citizen input as we can through this process to make sure everyone can have their say,” Poll said. “We will be holding design charrettes, as well as a survey. We want to get as many stakeholders and residents together that can help us come up with a new vision for the park.”

Poll said the ideas NEMCOG receives will be put on paper and then reviewed by the city and community once more before the plan is finalized.

“Hopefully, we will get a good finished product out of that,” Poll said.

Some of the projects in the current park plan include an ice rink, winter theater, ice-climbing tower, picnic shelter, disc golf course and a yurt village. An alternate project was to have an recreational vehicle park built at Mich-e-ke-wis, but it is likely that will be removed from the plan after the public made clear to the city it was not in support of such a development at the lakeside park.

“None of the projects listed in the plan have been constructed,” Poll said.

Poll said there have been some improvements made at Mich-e-ke-wis over the years. He said the volleyball courts and bike park are two examples of projects that have been done that have led to more people utilizing the park.

By comparison, there has been many planned projects completed at Starlite Beach. A pavilion was constructed, as well as a new restroom facility. This year, a new splash park was opened and other improvements were made to the beach and walkway area.

Poll said the improvements at Starlite has helped to lure people to it and he believes that, when more is done in the neighboring park, the same will be true. He said that, for now, however, the park is underutilized.

“There are some who utilize the park quite a bit, like the volleyball players, but, for the most part, when I go there, I see more geese than people,” he said. “When you look at raw numbers compared to the activity at Starlite, it is my opinion it leaves additional uses at Mich-e-ke-wis to be desired.”

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpeanews.com.