Last Updated on April 7, 2017 by cassnetwork
A Logansport tradition that started in the 1980s is re-emerging with a new focus.
The Mayor’s Golf Tournament, one of the original events of the former Iron Horse Festival, will be held Sept. 27 at Dykeman Municipal Golf Course. While the festival ended after a 20-year run, the tournament is being relaunched as a charitable fund-raising event. The tourney will benefit efforts to purchase trail cameras and phones for the Logansport trail system and support the ongoing facilities for Logansport Community Baseball at Fairview Park and Tower Park.
“While our parks are a pride point for our community, they also are a relative bargain,” Mayor Dave Kitchell said. “Per capita, we spend about half on parks and recreation in Logansport what Fort Wayne spends on its parks system.”
Earlier this year, a comparison of park and recreation budgets in Logansport’s six peer cities in Indiana indicated the other cities spend 20 percent more on parks and recreation than Logansport does this year. The disparity is even greater when cities with municipal golf courses and pools are considered. Those three peer cities spend an average of $421,217 more on parks and recreation than Logansport.
“The goal of this tournament isn’t just to raise money for parks, but to upgrade our public safety on the trails and to give young people more reasons to be active during the summer months and to be involved in baseball programs,” Kitchell said. “We need to invest in the next generation of Logansport and close the gap on park funding through efforts like this and the contributions of the parks foundation.”
The mayor said he wants to make the tournament an annual fund-raising event for nonprofit organizations.
More details of the tournament will be released this summer.
SOURCE: News release from Logansport Mayor Dave Kitchell