(KAIR)--A potential road closure in Jackson Park.

That’s the proposal that followed a presentation by the Atchison Parks & Forestry Board outlining results from a recent survey distributed throughout Atchison.

The survey, which had more than 400 respondents and was promoted mainly through Facebook, showed

“Jackson Park was one of the most visited parks, 83 percent of those respondents said that they utilize Jackson Park,” said Lorin Affield with the park board. “The others things that came out of that was the use of trails, hiking, biking, those sort of things. Which allowed us to convene as a group with the other members of our parks and forestry advisory group to be able to put some plans together to be able to act on those surveys rather than just sitting on them.”

Park Board Member Shawn Rizza presented the board's plan.

“We'd like to propose closing down some of the roads in Jackson Park to traffic having it just be pedestrian, bike, running, etc.,” Rizza said. “It will be a lot safer for them. It will give the community a longer walking trial that they can use right away, and it will be at very little cost to the city.

Rizza said the plan entails closing the south road that goes out to Guerrier Hill and loops around it. Then, the center concrete road that goes down the hill that leads to the ADA accessible trial.

“To do that, and still leave the ADA trail accessible to cars, we would reverse the flow of traffic on the north road, it would go out to the trail instead of coming back,” Rizza said. “Then, you would exit to 3rd Street.”

Discussion followed the presentation with commissioners questioning how many residents would be negatively affected with no vehicular access to the lookout at Guerrier Hill.

One member from the public spoke in opposition to the plan saying too many elderly people would not be able to climb the hill in order to access the views from atop Guerrier Hill.

Ultimately, commissioners tabled the issue until the next commission meeting in order to allow for more fact-gathering and discussion.