The city’s Department of Parks and Recreation will hold public meetings next week to get community input on the department’s facilities, programs and events.

“We want to hear from the taxpayers on how they want to see their funds spent in Parks and Recreation for the short and long term,” Parks and Recreation Director Lakita Watson said. “We need them to help weave the future of parks and recreation.”

The meetings will include an overview of the department as it is today, followed by discussion on where citizens feel it should be in the future.

“The facilitators we have hired, PROS Consulting, will engage the citizens in open dialogue about what they see as the needs and the gaps in our city,” Watson said. “They will take that information to build a roadmap for the next 10 to 15 years.”

Watson said the consultants will collect information on facilities, programs and services as well as unmet needs and the community’s vision for parks and recreation.

Watson said the department also is working internally on its operations and on how the department is organized.

The meetings will be held on the following schedule:

Monday, Sept. 8

• 5:30 to 7 p.m. — Creekside Recreation Center, 1000 Bennetts Creek Park Road
• 7:30 to 9 p.m. — King’s Fork Recreation Center, 350 Kings Fork Road

Tuesday, Sept. 9

• 5:30 to 7 p.m. — East Suffolk Recreation Center, 138 S. Sixth St.

For more information on the meetings, call Michael Kelley at 514-7258 or email him at mkelly@suffolkva.us. For additional information and updates, visit www.suffolkva.us./parks.