Visitors to Stroud Lake will notice a few new additions. A playground and new equestrian campsites have recently been added to the list of amenities.
The playground with ADA accessible play equipment and a music station was built in the camping area just north of the main entrance, while five equestrian camping spots were built near the start of the equestrian trails. The camping spots include small, individual corrals and electric hookups, grills and tables, with a well built nearby for water. Another larger corral was also built.
The Stroud Lake Enhancement Project is a Land and Water Conservation Grant (LWCF), according to City Manager Bob Pearman. It was a $244,670 project and 50/50 grant seen to completion by Kayla Copeland, who was the Landscape Architect.
“Stroud Lake is one of Stroud’s greatest assets. These equestrian campsites will offer one more opportunity for people to enjoy the lake,” Pearman said. “In the last couple of years, we have added another Pro Level Disc golf course, new boat dock that is ADA accessible, new playground that is ADA accessible, water well, and the new campsites that are also ADA accessible.”
The campsites are currently not open for campers as they wait for final inspection from the Department of Environmental Quality.
Work on the playground began in the early summer, according to Lake Ranger Jared Null, and he said he was extremely happy to have it so that children had a safe place to play. The playground has soft turf, so that kids can play barefoot, and already, kids at the lake have been making use of it. Null said as soon as it was finished, there were about a dozen kids playing on the equipment.
“It turned out to be awesome. I was super excited about it,” he said. The campsites came together fairly quickly, according to Null, who also gave credit to the City workers who did a lot of the work. Electric and water employees were responsible for putting in the hookups and installing the new well. Streets and parks did the gravel work and moved the rocks around on both the playground and at the campsites, as well as setting up the grills and tables at the campsites.
“I had help from all of them,” he said. The lake ranger said that with the new campsites, he hopes to see more people coming out to ride the trails. Stroud Lake has about 12 miles of trails that can be used by horse riders.