Parks and Recreation

To add variety to the holidays, take the opportunity to take the family outside and visit local parks

The holidays are a time when families and people gather to exchange gifts, sit down together for a meal and just take time to be together.

But after all the presents are opened, the meals are consumed and everyone is caught up with everybody else, one of the best things you can do with family and friends is get outside!

Go for a walk together. Visit a park. Toss a football or kick a soccer ball. Ride your new bikes.

Mother Nature gives us the best gift of all - the great outdoors. Blue skies and green grass all wrapped up in a giant package of fresh air.

Sure, we know, it's the Age of Technology. But you can bring your new tablets, iPhones, and hand-held game consoles with you. Sit on a park bench or a picnic table and play, take photos or create videos.

The main thing is to just get out of the house. It breaks up the day, it gives people some elbow

Promote recycled products such as plastic picnic tables at schools, stores and parks to raise awareness

Offering plastic picnic tables and plastic benches made with recycled materials for use by the public can be one of the keys to promoting conservation in your town.  Rather than just talk about the benefits of recycling, you can walk the talk and show the real, tangible rewards of green living.

If you look on the web at various governmental programs to promote recycling, most of them focus on promoting the concept of recycling.

For example, with the Municipal Government Toolkit from the US Department

Commercial bike rack with bicycle rider desig

It's not often a person stands up and questions the mega-corporation known as Walmart. But when it comes to a commercial bike rack, that's just what one Jupiter, Fla. person did at a recent town meeting.

Walmart is expanding their store in this southeastern Florida town from 128,000 square feet to 165,000 square feet and spending about $12 million to make the change.

Except, there was a perception somebody may have forgotten the bicycle parking racks. At least, that's what Polly Daugherty feared after she reportedly spoke to a few employees at the store who apparently told her they didn't think a bike rack would be added.

So Polly showed up at the town meeting and wanted to know

Parking bollards in a downtown setting

People see them every day. Few probably know what they are. But these often overlooked traffic-controlling devices have an incredibly long history of stopping vehicles, steering pedestrians and saving lives. They are called bollards.

Parking bollards (also known as traffic control bollards) are basically those unassuming posts you see sticking out of the ground in various locations - on streets, on crosswalks, in front of stores, government offices, schools and other structures. They quietly direct people and drivers in the direction that planners want them to go...or not go.

Bollards come in all shapes and sizes. Most are pole-like and stand a few feet tall. Some are tall, like the ones you see in front of Best Buy. Some are squat like you might see in front of a courthouse. Others are thick in circumference,

Park managers take notice: When are picnic tables and park benches more than just pieces of outdoor furniture? When they become part of a workout routine.

In fact, park benches and picnic tables seem to be taking on new functionality as outdoor fitness equipment promoted by fitness experts on sites such as YouTube and Pinterest.

It's a great concept. The routine motivates people to go outside, breathe fresh air and work out with Mature Nature. And rather than just jogging in a park, with these routines you can turn a park into a virtual outdoor gym and enjoy a complete workout.