The Perk Your Park Contest is part of the Niagara Perk Your Park Project, an initiative that focuses on park and community space revitalization across the country. To encourage public engagement with these new spaces, improvements will include things like community gardens, updated playgrounds, new trail amenities, and other ways communities can connect with nature and the outdoors. After funding four projects in 2021, Niagara is giving communities a chance to cast their votes for which projects receive funding next.

New Braunfels is hoping to get the most votes in order to fund improvements that would allow the general public direct access to Fischer Park’s 30-acres of restored Blackland Prairie and would also connect into the park’s “Enchanted Forest,” an already existing wooded area that has not yet been formally converted into a public space for hiking and nature-play.

“This is a great opportunity for New Braunfels! Through Niagara’s Perk Your Park Contest, with enough votes from residents, we can get the funding to create about 1,400 linear-feet of trails through the restored Blackland Prairie of Fischer Park,” said New Braunfels Parks and Recreation Director Stacey Dicke. “We will also be able to provide trails, signage, a nature-play area in the ‘Enchanted Forest,’ as well as be able to complete restoration work to balance the urban forest, increase tree canopy, and improve wildlife habitat.”

The contest runs from September 1^st to September 29^th, with the two winning park projects receiving a renovation worth $90,000. You can vote for Fischer Park once per day during the contest. Visit the Niagara Perk Your Park website to vote daily and learn more about the Perk Your Park contest.