Disc golf, an obscure game as American sports go, became the center of attention Tuesday night at Bryan Elementary School in southwest Omaha.
Opponents and supporters of a disc golf course at Walnut Grove Park spun arguments at a meeting led by the City Parks and Recreation Department. Close to 220 people signed in as they entered the small gym, which became packed.
The meeting ostensibly was to help decide how to spend $ 300,000 in city money and $ 50,000 in state money on improvements to the 55-acre park near 156th and Q Streets.
Parks administrators said the money would go to improve the Walnut Grove pond, turn crumbling asphalt trails there into concrete trails, and improve playground equipment.
But when disc golf, mentioned at the initial Walnut Grove Park renovation meeting in June, was raised Tuesday, democracy's orderliness was tested.
"Is this meeting just a smoke screen, and this disc golf course is all cut and dried?" asked Art Andersen, who lives near the park.
"Did you come in late?" Parks Director Larry Foster responded testily. He had given assurances earlier that disc golf would be analyzed by his department over the next six months. Other cities would be contacted, he said, to determine how they handle disc golf. He said he wanted to hear the pros and cons of the issue from those in attendance.
"We're not going to sneak it in in the middle of the night," Foster said.
Disc golfers toss Frisbee-like discs into "holes," or mounted metal baskets.
Omaha has courses at Seymour Smith Park and Cunningham Lake Park.
Opponents of the Walnut Grove Park course say senior citizens who walk in the park would feel unsafe if a course was put in there. Supporters say the city needs another course and that Walnut Grove, a heavily wooded, quiet park, is underused.
Kim Van Brunt said she plays disc golf with her young nephews and with her parents. "It's free and it's fun," she said. "To me, it's a family thing."
Opponent Linda Marcum said she and others had accumulated more than 1,000 signatures against it. They want no major changes to the park.
Dustin Champlin, president of the local disc-golf club, said his organization needs another venue in Omaha.
Champlin said his group had no idea the proposal would explode into a neighborhood conflict.
"We are not used to this type of thing," he said. "We just suggested it, and that's all."
Source: Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska)
