Last year was an eventful one for the Hannibal Parks & Recreation department, with 2026 looking even busier with the 10-year anniversary of Sodalis Nature Preserve coming up.

• The Admiral Coontz Recreation Center is the site of many HPR events, along with activities sponsored by HPR and other entities. With room for 1,000 people and the biggest venue in Hannibal, it is the site of the biggest events such as the Gun Show, Chili Cookoff, HPD Halloween party and Holy Family Auction. There were 17 private events, such as birthday parties, baby showers and company parties. The parks department also provided pickleball, basketball, horseshoes, senior adult dances, shooters education, indoor archery and Special Olympics and cosponsored job fairs, health fairs, Eagle Day, Black History Month, Teen Expo, Senior Expo and Toys for Tots. Each day about 15 people participated in recreation at the facility, mostly pickleball but some walking and basketball. Even though floodwaters didn’t force any evacuations last year, the building has withstood standing water many times so the entryway floor was replaced with an epoxy flooring due to cracks in the tiles.
• The Ronny Ferrel Hannibal Aquatic Center hosted 10 swim parties in the 2025 pool season. The facility also hosted cardboard boat races, swim lessons with 62 students and the River Country swimming league practices. Attendance for the summer was 12,685 people, meaning about 164 swimmers were there on an average. The aquatic center had numerous projects completed, including upgrades to the spray feature system, re-caulking joint seams, removing media from filters, and the red slide was resurfaced.
• All four fields at Bear Creek Sports Park benefited from new DuraEdge Dirt to resurface the playing area. During the 2025 season, 307 athletes participated in the Recreation League and 35 Teams with 420 athletes participated in the Competitive League. Bear Creek also hosted three tournaments.
• There was turf installed outside of the cages at Clemens Training Facility. During the 2024-25 Hitting League, 20 teams participated with about 90 athletes, the 2025 Hitting League had 12 teams with 50 athletes. The facility was rented out three days a week from January through March with 82 total rentals.
• Nature programs were sponsored by Hannibal BASF this year, to allow the programs free to participants. There were 12 Night Hike through Sodalis Nature Preserve, 10 nature programs in Sodalis and Riverview Park and four Bird Walks in Sodalis, with about 500 people taking advantage of the programs last year.
• The hard-working maintenance staff takes care of more than 30 park properties daily, emptying trash cans, mowing, cleaning, trimming trees, weed-eating, removing graffiti, pouring concrete and striping parking spots. Specific construction included building a sidewalk at Sodalis Nature Preserve, constructing a rock barrier at Riverview Park, planting about 80 trees, removing the shelter at West Ely Park, installing wifi at Kiwanis Park, repairing a washout at Huckleberry Lake pouring concrete pads for sculptures. Seasonal work includes the Christmas decorations, marina dredging and flag installations.