2025 has been a busy year for the Berrien County Parks Department.
Parks Director Jill Adams provided a year-end report to the Berrien County Board of Commissioners this week, highlighting some of the department’s biggest accomplishments throughout the year. She said completed projects have included a new pavilion at Love Creek County Park, the new and popular Silver Beach Playground, and concessions improvements at the beach.
“With an expanded retail area and some hard surface shaded seating area,” Adams said. “And because of this, our concessionaire had an increase of 25% in her sales.”
Adams said the department celebrated 40 years of disc golf at Madeline Bertrand County Park this year and launched a materials management survey that’s still available to all residents of Berrien, Cass, and Van Buren counties. It will guide waste management policy across Southwest Michigan.
Adams also highlighted the sale of yearly parks passes.
“I just want to announce that our 2026 permits are available for purchase. We have an annual entrance permit that gets you into four of our county parks, but the sale of these entrance permits does help maintain all of our seven properties.”
Adams noted the parks office will be open on Christmas Eve, for those seeking good gifts at the last minute. Also, she shared numbers from this year’s recycling program.
“We had over 2,000 people participate, which was higher than last year. We collected over 82,000 pounds of household hazardous waste and liquids that were kept out of our area landfills. We recycled over 41,000 pounds of electronics through these events. We also collected and recycled 4,000 pounds of foam or Styrofoam, which is a lot considering it’s mostly air.”
Adams said the department also filled three semi-trailers with old tires at its tire recycling event. She added they could have collected more and may have four trailers on hand next year.
You can learn more about the county’s recycling program at BerrienCounty.org/Recycle.
