QUEENSBURY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Queensbury is a big town, encompassing a mass of space stretching around both Glens Falls at the south end and Lake George at the north. Part of using that much space means maintaining various places for families to play sports, go swimming, take a run, and more. It also means there’s always work to do.

On Monday night, the Town of Queensbury approved the 2022 park capital project plan. The Town Recreation Commission submits a plan every year, highlighting renovations and new ideas on how to bring more to the Queensbury community.

This year, the sum total of those projects is a $478,000 plan, encompassing six of the 11 parks and trails (over 1,000 acres) managed by the Queensbury Parks and Recreation Department. The biggest target is Gurney Lane Recreation Area, at Queensbury’s northern end, near the Lake George Outlet Mall. The park boasts over 150 acres, including a pool, bike park, basketball area, playground, and network of trails. Those are all great in the summer, but Queensbury wants to add to what families can do there regardless of the time of year.

This year, Parks & Recreation Director Steven Lovering proposed a 2,400 square foot program building to be built in the park. The building would provide a new home for a long list of youth and adult fitness classes, youth mat wrestling, preschool care, and other programs. Developing park spaces in ways that benefit all seasons has only become more important over time.

“It has been important over the past 5 years to look at ways to expand our offerings in a way that we can control the flexibility of when programs are offered,” said Lovering. “This program will allow us to develop new programming during school hours for pre-school and adult populations.”

That’s not all that will be new at Gurney Lane. Fishing docks and pool flooring are set to get upgrades, and the park’s network of trails is always in need of maintenance and repair.

In total, $355K is going into Gurney Lane Recreation Area. Close by, new mountain bike trails are coming to Rush Pond Trail, which has been ranked among the best trails in New York over the last three years, according to Lovering.

Also in Queensbury’s first ward, Jenkinsville Athletic Field is getting resurfacing on its pickleball and basketball courts. The popular Hovey Pond Park is getting an upgrade to its public garden, as well as water quality improvements to treat the pond for invasives. The Glen Lake Boat Launch is getting dock upgrades, and Hudson River Park—under the Northway near Glens Falls—will see resurfaced pickleball courts.

There isn’t an exact timetable yet for the construction of the Gurney Lane building. First, Queensbury Parks and Recreation has to work through engineering and design and then start the bidding process for construction. Lovering said he expects quieter work in the summer when the area sees its highest use, followed by a potential uptick in construction in September.