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MARYVILLE

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News Brief

June 25, 2025 |  By: Gavin McGough

Maryville has 12 parks, 3 recreation facilities, 10 playgrounds, and a dog park on the way

Judah Park

With 12 parks, 3 major recreation facilities, 10 playgrounds and a dog park on the way Maryville’s Parks and Recreation Department has a lot going on. That was the news from the City’s Assistant Director of Park and Rec Maggie Rockwood at this Monday’s Council Meeting. 

She came before council to provide an Annual update on the department’s projects, completed and ongoing. According to data from cell phone City parks saw over 2 hundred thousand visits in the past year. Meanwhile, over 30,000 individuals were reached by events and special programming. 

This is encouraging, says Rockwood. 

“What we offer is pretty popular not just with people in town but with people from outside the community,” she said. 

The cellphone data, collected by the analytics company PlacerAi, also suggested that many of those using city parks had traveled significant distances. Rockwood says parks are likely an economic driver. 

“Even though most of our parks aren’t revenue generating, we are still getting people from out of town,” she said. “[They’re] coming to town and staying to do their shopping, do their eating, so those numbers, those stats are kind of fun to see.”

Accomplishments from the past year are many: new bridges at Judah Park, a Playground for Sisson Eek, Splash Pad Landscaping, new asphalt overlay at a handful of facilities, and updates to the rec center. Rockwood also notes the department is looking ahead to a major project on the horizon: it’s working with a design firm to consider different options for a new pool: 

“And we are looking at those three options – a new indoor facility, a new outdoor facility, or updates to our current facility. So hopefully we’ll have a clearer idea of where we are going to move to in the future once we have that finalized report.”

The next step in that process will involve looking at cost estimates, timelines, and community benefits to determine the best option going forward. Maryville’s existing pool? A chilly spring made for a slow start, Rockwood reports

“Almost every pool that was in our area and even throughout Missouri opened a little later because of that cold weather but it’s started to pick up, especially this past weekend. We were pumping over there!” she said. 

Indeed, as weekend temperatures climbed into the nineties, the current facility remains a lifeline for families and individuals needing a spot to cool down and have some summer fun.