The “new” Lakemont Park is going to require adjustment for the individuals and families that continue to patronize the recreational facility.

Unfortunately, it won’t be an adjustment to which most of those park-goers are looking forward.

Lakemont Park 2024 will be a scaled-back version, even of its most recent self. The decisions made on behalf of the park for the coming recreation season are mostly unwelcome but at the same time necessary.

It also is true the changes coming have seemed inevitable for some time, and that is not said with the purpose of criticizing or casting blame on the facility’s owner/operators.

It is a fact of life that park attendance of recent years, not only at Lakemont but in the commonwealth’s state park system as well, has not mirrored attendance figures compiled, for example, in the 1950s and ’60s.

Those were decades when families had a bigger window of opportunity to spend a Saturday or Sunday enjoying what a park had to offer.

That is because there were fewer competitors for families’ time and families were less likely to travel long distances for recreational variety.

A force in the proverbial driver’s seat of that was fewer families with both the mother and father working in full-time jobs seeking to make financial ends meet. Additionally, many workers’ weekends are now Tuesday and Wednesday, Wednesday and Thursday, for example, rather than Saturday and Sunday.

Likewise, families then were more closely and actively locked in and loyal to home community-based activities, rather than always seeking greener recreational pastures elsewhere.

For many families, back then, a visit to a recreational attraction even 100 miles away was the stuff of a full-fledged vacation, rather than a Saturday or Sunday jaunt.

The fact is Lakemont Park never will resurrect its heyday, but it can be an enjoyable place nonetheless.

But at least for the coming year and likely for years beyond the coming warm-weather months, mothers and fathers and their sons and daughters will have to find new ways for the park to work for them, without such attractions as the traditional rides and Independence Day fireworks.

Perhaps hidden within that challenge will be more opportunity for enjoying the basics of what nature has to offer, which can be enlightening as well as fun — with the satisfaction of having gone somewhere away from home but really not far.

Lakemont Partnership President Andrea Cohen and Blair County Commissioner Laura Burke have provided a window for thought for the community, even with the park opening still months away. Both have called on the community for collaboration and ideas.

Area residents should not be shy about providing input. Here are a few suggestions that should be considered a springboard for other ideas, perhaps ideas better than these. But consider:

— Why not consider scheduling ethnic-related events, or competitions centering on such things as dancing or trivia or weight-lifting.

— Possibly schedule an Elvis Presley impersonator or impersonators to entertain older park patrons, or schedule an event in which young women show their talents in regard to impersonating Taylor Swift.

— What about an event centered on displaying one’s favorite antique item? What about a weekend featuring psychics or fortune-tellers?

The point is, despite its current challenges, keep Lakemont Park alive so it can be enjoyed for many more years.

What an accomplishment that would be.