A&p Commission - Regular Meeting

we're going to do it e today is Tuesday January the 21st 2025 it is 4 o uh would you please call the roow for the parks committee meeting yes Jennifer Travis here G Martin here K Hedley here um cab Bell is absent Otis Edwards here we have a qu do I have a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting I so MO

do we have a second I'll second have a second is that Gwen Gwen yes Miss Travis yes Miss Martin yes M hidley yes Mr Edwards yes you know all right do we have any reports from the freedom Fest committee nothing report yet uh there is nothing to report on the trails at this time and the tree and board plant is not here today okay do I have any items that would be needed to be added to the agenda okay uh the uh the first item is uh for Mrs Martin housekeeping items on for bellpark and the Lake trails so I had put a few things on this list just so we could have some discussion I feel like so often we get in here and we're just kind of checking stuff off and I've been spending a little extra time at Bell Park and around the lake and wanted to just get some input really from Casey and his crew on um maintenance of those Trails schedule obviously it's in the middle of winter the last time I was there the um makers were doing the bridge at the lake it was just they were hammering the last board and I was like hiy can I use the bridge um so lots is being done out there I'm just curious about the maintenance of the trails once we got across that bridge and kind of over to the other side you know it needs some work obviously it hasn't been used in a really long time so I'm just trying to kind of get you know an idea of how that happens how often yall are out there same with the Bell Park Trail um you know there's several spots that are low

or muddy constantly just want some kind of how was that yeah okay in the meantime just so that we can buy us some time um the Lake Trail is something that our new guys are not as familiar with still I have talked to Ralph after he finished this bridge and he and his Ralph senior big Ralph dad Ralph have agreed to they're GNA take our guys out and actually show like give them a crash course on the Lake Trail and like give them because we're not Trail clearing people um and I think Bobby would be a good resource too he's spent hours out there clearing Trail um they're Ralph has agreed to get out there on on a weekday and basically teach our guys what they need to do to get out there and make presentable Trail okay well and I know we have the trails committee although I don't think it's met recently I don't know but at at one point I know there was a gentleman on the trails committee that was like oh yeah we'll do you know but I don't know I think it's just a matter of was that you oh there you go great check okay the next item on the agenda is Partners a prent a partnership with the South Sebastian County Fairgrounds yeah so this

is this came up uh a little while ago I had been speaking with Randy over at the fair Fairgrounds and was talking to him about a potential skate park I know the skate park has come up several times in discussion about something that would be you know a nice addition to our parks in Greenwood basically Randy isn't interested um but there is another gentleman um Bob Gleason who uh had wanted to do this maybe six or eight years ago before you he said and before you he had said that he talked to the city about it was basically going to give them give the city the land that now that the fairgrounds owns and is making their new entrance like directly across from the football uh parking lot at the high school and have a skate park he really wants to see a skate park at the time the city was not interested they thought it would be too much maintenance I was like it's a Concrete playground I don't know how much maintenance nonetheless Mr Gleason is still interested he owns other pieces of property um and so that that might be something that we could look at I did tell him to reach out to you and to come to one of our meetings if he so is inclined but I don't know if anybody else has any thoughts on having a skat Park if you are interested or if you you know feel one way or another um that the group has come here before uh couple three four years ago maybe four I mean they were very passionate they came to the city council meeting they came to a Parks meeting there were a whole bunch of them we love the idea I don't know if if Doug can fill in the mayor can fill in on any kind of where it

ended sorry we wanted grants but talk come up to mik if you would sir yes dou Kino 615 West H Street Greenwood Arkansas uh so uh it has been discussed for 25 years probably kind of like the splash pad and and there there were a group there's been probably three large groups that you described while ago come and go uh I remember the first time we met about when I was Parks director we met about this these kids were adults and had kids of their owns and and I found some archives in the office that had their names on them when they were 15 asking for a skate park and then once upon a time this is just history for whatever it's worth I drive back and forth when I lived on Bass Street and I go by First Baptist Church every day and there was a group of kids at that time utilizing First Baptist Church as a skate park and the church was willing to do what they could but it wasn't working out well and so I stopped one day and I said why don't you guys come and talk to the city to the committee or or commission and they did very well represented they had an adult with them they spoke very eloquently about it so there's always been a want and or a need I suppose but certainly a want and so I I I don't know how popular they are these days I'm out of touch with par hope not as much as I used to be I guess but uh there's many options when you talk about skate park you can you can talk about a concrete bowl and adding to it or you can talk about the modular types too that have the slab and then you just bring these these modular Priestess I I think it's good I think it's always something good we over my experience of parks and mayor cities have them uh sometimes you run into some issues with

with depending on where that is if you put it way outside where people nobody sees it sometimes it turns into a problem a little bit depending on who the kid that utilize it but uh I think it's a good idea I don't know if that that doesn't help you with what you're pursuing but I don't know you said Bob mentioned other properties yeah B Bob had mentioned some other properties but then Casey and I had talked about a little bit too and I mean maybe there's room at Bell Park I mean there seems like there would be you know to have to carve out a you just crepe the dirt you got plenty of rock you could just have a Splat I know right I mean the rock there that's right smooth it out I tried to buy that property from Mr glacon back when so I ask him if he REM remembers that Bob and I are good friends I've known him forever but uh what you're talking about typic really that property and the fair owns it now though right so that that property lends itself to me to one because it can be part of the drainage problem now you're not you know once if it's raining of course it's like your Trail if it's Creeks over the trail you can't walk on it same thing with a with a skate par but you could utilize that for both a little utilize drainage basins yeah like behind the courthouse there's a really look perfect looking spot but now the byass we looked at that as well also we did some research and the county was willing to to donate that property at that time too we also looked into funding grants and stuff the hawk Foundation we don't meet their yeah criteria right of our population and everything so we have looked at that stuff in the past um the last time we talk talked about this uh it was going to cost somewhere around a million dollars to build uh the skate park so there was also the mention of doing what skate pods or something off little pockets off the trail par having a rail

here and a rail there whatever those things are called just you know let the kids U now they would be utilizing the trail to get to these pods which some may not think that's good good I don't know but and I don't know if the trail is smooth enough they don't care these days they like ramping and stuff but we have looked at it in the past that was one of the big things was the cost and we looked at different grants at the time but the um we just did not fit yeah you're not gonna get Tony hog the the the criteria unless they changed it but yeah but the last time we talked about it was when our previous director and she was quoting us a number of about a million dollars yeah and I don't I know and I heard her do that and that's certainly possible it's kind of like a splash bad you can spend 250,000 and get a little bitty tiny piece of concrete or you can have a nice something else for a million over a million in these days it's always anymore half a million dollars is nothing when you're talking I mean concrete yeah so I I think it if you're asking me I think it's a nice idea I think it's cool I think I think it would be utilized I think there's still a lot of kids that have kind of hung their their skateboards up because there's no place to play they used to come to the square we kind of had to deal with that a little bit like hey guys this is we we want you to have this but you can't skate on these Stones it's not it's not a cemetery but that's not a good idea on that curb so one of the drawbacks of a thriving Community where we're not completely poor is we don't qualify for these grants that we need right and that's hard makes it hard for any group to try to get something done parks and tourism might still that may be a thing for them I know Splash beds was a big thing as you utilizing that that might be something they're interested in but I do like the idea of a skate park yeah or at least because it just gives another activity i' go out there and break my neck real quick so be kids it's just it

was the cost when we discuss it the last time and finding a location uh they had talked about um those pocket Pockets the pockets ODS on the trail everything but they got excited about that the kids that were skating at that time and they're probably already growing now too but there's always another generation they they like that idea good set for just be identifying location even if you identify that location you start with one item just like equivalent to Bicycle track just something some feature for them to get started then you build upon that but you know all that starts with the location and the land of what you want go to the one in Fort Smith on the river and that gets used a lot a lot yeah mayor do you have a list of any contacts we could give Gwen if she wanted to go down that path and contact some of those people that are passionate okay what I had he's got but yeah I mean you might even get a committee organized of Youngs that that really want to get involved well and I think if we publicized it a little bit there may be even some companies that step up that are concrete that that do you know steel or pipe you know that would donate either their services or or materials so wouldn't be surprised especially if you connect it to a trail or or utilize the trail to get there for the kids and back that's a big deal he knows that so I'll help any way I can thanks I think the company is called r it stands for something great something skater

related okay the next item is pocket uh park at the new M Masonic Lodge yeah and this is something that mayor kenow had mentioned to me and probably to others uh a little while back and I was just curious and may Kenzo this you might need to come back up the microphone kind of where that stands obviously we've all seen the dirt work that has been done for the Masonic lodge and there's still this nice piece of property next to it so we're just curious if if that's happening or yeah so when buddy Lloyd approached us originally or me originally about the M you know the utilizing the the property which we got it we did that we're happy to do that for the for the Masons so they now have a place to build their new Lodge since in essence we're taking their other one because of the the extension of Main Street but um the idea my idea and we don't I think Travis and it might go back as far as Michael had a drawing if you will of a little bit of a SE and basically if you see the pad now that's where the building is going to be and then to the I'm horrible with directions to the right if you're looking at it whatever direction that is between that and the building existing building uh that's ours too of course and there's a couple of trees there and so my idea and and so now that's going to have to accommodate a parking lot a drive there'll be a front parking lot on the building as it stands now you probably eight or nine slots and then a parking lot with a drivethru road beside the building that will take you to the back lot behind the existing what's that building called House of holl House of Holland it'll go because that's our lot back there too we have a

lot uh a little lot but it's a lot so idea was we're going to be able to drive through there and get out and maybe even having some parking space back there but to still leave uh green space between that road and driveway next to the house of Holland building so it was never it was never really thought of as a big big Park but just a pocket park of maybe a couple of benches sitting there with some trees and maybe even in a in a perfect world a water fountain or something there just to have a place for people to sit and visit while they're shopping downtown or something so uh we don't have a we don't have a drawing for that but I mean there might be I don't know if you ever seen it I'll look through my files and see if something there was a rendering from Travis or or Michael either one uh but I I think it's a great idea I'm all about little sections like that that you can be can be a park you don't want it to become a big maintenance issue uh certainly but there's not enough property there for it to be a big maintenance issue it' be very minimal so think it' be a great idea it'll be soften it couple little swings yeah yeah you can probably do whatever you know just I will say this when when the planning department has some plans on that you have all the plans on that for the building itself I mean I know where the footprint is we're all looking at it but you don't have anything okay which is little out of not his fault they got a little ahead of themselves with the pad yeah so as we move along we won't I I'll bring or Hunter can bring you what what is left if to do something with if that's fair it was proposed by build to includ Aion ofs oface be required on site and maybe a couple of

and some shy or maybe shade trees area most of it's going to be concrete so trying to incate that great idea if we can do it through or know cooperative and I think they would be open as they are I think they already are open to doing that being partners with us or maybe even more than that but that leaving that rock wall of that building is going to be cool hopefully that stays there for many years to come so I think that look I think that would look nice and if you're looking for a name it's spelled k i n s SL o w for the par I'm joking oh did he oh okay okay so anyway okay thank you that's a great idea yes ma'am uh poent potential Reven uh recreational Revenue sources yes okay so this is the last thing that I was going to talk about starting to just kind of think of other ways that the parks department can kind of become a Parks and Recreation Department um and maybe generate a little Revenue obviously Casey's doing a great job getting the bellpark Pavilion uh rented out and utilized you know I saw on the agenda this time around that you know he included those stats from the last several years um what I was thinking since we do have you know several great parks in the city but especially with the addition of the splash pad this year I was thinking it would be great to do a couple week-long camps so we hire high school kids to be in charge of five or six you know campers they will spend the week doing different activities at Bell Park so the Pavilion would be utilized during the week um as kind of a home base but

we're going to teach them how to do pickle ball basketball um crisbey golf um sand volleyball soccer I mean we have all these things and then each day they can finish up the splash pad so we're not only utilizing everything that our city you know kind of offers in that Recreation space but we're also reminding people that hey we have this Splash Pad hey we have these facilities because so often I'm on hey Greenwood or I I'm talking to somebody and I'll I'll say something or they'll like oh if we only had a sandb Court I'm like we do it's right at Bell Park or if we only had we do so it'd be great if our families knew about it and one of the best ways to do it is camps parents are always looking for something to do with their kids and if we can do a camp from you know 9 to three or 9 to 4 you know Monday through Friday it's great and it gives kiddos in high school that may not be able to have full-time jobs because they're about to start start football you know two days or you know fast dogs in July we do our camps in June and so they're they're over the course of you know maybe three weeks or four weeks have you uh happened to talk to Kenny Sunday with the boys and girls club I have not he might have some Inlet ideas yeah you know because all those kids there with he does things with sure yeah um I think it would need to be separate I think the Boys and Girls Club I mean if that's not totally true I mean I guess you can and have your kids at the boys and girls club and they bring them over to that um but yeah I I've done a lot of this before in my former life I I did a lot of these kind of summer camps and things um I've talked to Casey a little bit about it we're you know kind of

throwing around a few things on how to organize it and um and get it structured but I think it could be really good and honestly it's it's nothing for us as the Parks Commission granted we would be sponsoring it but the kids are going to be paying the tuition for the camps and then we're we're paying the high school kids out of that so there should be no cost to us but we should you know you know garnish a little bit of revenue from it and the publicity are you willing to be the adult that takes care of what needs to be done 100% yes because we need somebody that can be responsible for whatever it is I can do that be great no in a legality just asking the legality can we as a city or as a park commission charge people to do those kind of programs if we can we can if we especially if we justify the cost our cost and then does that how does that affect going into our budget yeah you would just need to create different ins and outs line items in your budget and I would establish a committee like a standing committee for that okay to be accountable for all of it okay sure like a freedom Fest committee is is there any liabilities toward us well we have toward immunity where if somebody gets hurt the city's not liable yeah but if we're but if we're hosting that would be a question for the City attorney for sure we would have each camper sign a waiver I mean that's pretty standard um where we where I used to live the city put these on all the time they had camps year round they would have soccer camps they would have baseball I mean they had baseball and

softball fields also but they would their Recreation Department was all over this kind of stuff it's probably a lot bigger than our department 16,000 people I mean versus 10,000 in Greenwood it wasn't it was just a a really robust City I mean it's it's what I think it's what you make of it and Greenwood has so much to offer you know it's just we just need to utilize it I think I mean we could do fishing tournaments at Liberty Park I'd love to see that you know get those Pond stocked do those twice a year we can do stuff at Greenwood Lake you know we could do little sailing tournaments we could do you know there's so many different things that we could do are you ging fish I think does fishing Derbies good they stock it at Liberty even kids one that traveled around and they hosted that good toost my kids don't to ride a bike six and seven [Laughter] theyes park thata on the trail maybe yeah yeah that's a great idea I mean doing doing those kind of events brings the community together and it shows that you know what did I say the other day Charlotte that this is a great place to

live you know it like it feels like it feels like home like somebody's gonna teach your kid how to ride his bike you know you know what give them to me for an afternoon I'll do it taught a few I'm notos my my only worry is that if this was in June or before July they so here's a suggestion if you were if this is something that you're interested in that you're willing to to take on why don't we why don't you create a committee get some people who can help you to involve and get things going and maybe we could put this on the agenda for next um month month thank you and maybe we can we you probably need to get this probably out by May at the latest oh no March March yeah okay get that out as soon as quickly as we can if if this is decided on the by the committee but have a committee have a plan have um a budget um everything that you need to we can do so does that sound like a does that sound legitimate okay yeah the standing committees are composed of one or more Commissioners but less than a quorum of course and and would hold a membership for one year or until succeeded and then the committee chair reports at the regular monthly meeting so we could add that we'll set that up next meeting

we'll have it on the agenda to add the camps clinics committee can we just call the recreation committee sure I mean yes that's what I was gonna say I was about to say do you want to do that if you want to submit the formal like just paperwork for everybody to look at next month well it'll be on the agenda okay okay you'll tell me what that formal paperwork is like just a little yeah a list of what your budget is what your what Your objective or your um goals yeah activities mission statement yes there you [Music] go no no not all not for me but got a okay yeah no we will'll take committee I mean committee members from anywhere all right is there anything yes you can't be in charge totally fine okay uh no it won't nominations for alternative alternate commission members yes uh well oh sorry we have two uh more a nomination or or two more people have submitted letters for nomination to the parks committee uh you should have a copy in front of them uh one is a Colton reading and one is a Bobby Price Mr Price is here today um we are allowed to have at least we have one allowed to have one alternate and then we could have a alternate in case Mr Price couldn't uh could not be a part of the committee or

if we have two committee members you need to step down for any reason U so please look over these and let me know what you thought sorry so I will clarify that we have in the bylaws one alternate member that is confirmed by Council that way they're ready to go so whoever the commission picks as the alternate member would be the one that I take to council to have them confirm that individual but what what this doesn't address in our bylaws is if we have an you know two interested parties or whatever uh I don't think it would be inappropriate that I keep that person's info you know with the with the alternate member even though it's not that person's not going to be confirmed by Council but in the event in the future whoever knows that vacancy might occur uh and whoever that this commission chooses and is confirmed by Council we could and and if they couldn't do it whenever that time came if it did then we could just go to this next one and get them confirmed if that's the way you want to handle it since there are you know really good selections having a backup to a backup yeah I mean the BW doesn't call for that but I could I'm just saying we could do it that way if you'd like Vote or resolution or you just need aled they're not actively on the commission they're more likely to fall off and therefore you would need an altern right we haven't run into that yet but um this person if if once selected and confirmed that person just stays involved as far as receiving everything that the Parks Commission receives they're at Liberty to come to

these meetings or not um so they all want to you know just remain informed about what's going on that's the whole point of it but we haven't had it yet where one of them has not actively been paying attention so we haven't run into that yet so I don't know could be a problem yeah we didn't used to be have alternates at all on these commissions but something that Water Commission started worked well was idea so the Parks Commission adopted it as well and now here we are may I make a suggestion that we go with this plan sure I just did I mean it does say alternate member contact information shall be included in the commission membership roster and maintained by the secretary so I'm just saying that I could maintain both of these but only one alternate unless you change the bylaws will be confirmed by Council so our job now is just to pick one of out of the two to be confirmed I'd like to submit a name how does this work I'm asking you how this works Mr Price would you like to introduce yourself and tell us anything that you'd like for us to know yes sir I'm Bobby Price um been a Greenwood resident since 2017 but I did go through the whole whole all the years at Greenwood school system from kindergarten through High School Brandon Tate was actually one of my teachers believe or not no not to age them or anything but I feel like I'm a pretty active member of the community um professional life I'm a it nerd um but on the volunteer side I work at the Greenwood City Fire Department as a firefighter so I've always liked to volunteer before that I worked at White

Bluff at that fire department so it's always been something I like to do is to help out I've worked with Casey on several different projects I was a guy originally that was out cutting trails at the Greenwood Lake location I had a recently stop just because some of the property lines and the trail kind of intersect in some areas so I'm kind of just holding off until I get to go ahead that we're good to go to start cutting some more Trail on that so hopefully that gets approved pretty soon because that's something else I like to do um just Trail work I'm a big mountain biker so back in the day I was out there all the time on the mountain bike I still go out there and Hike a lot the city Trail I usually run on that about once a day if not twice a day so most of the parks around here I'm actually using and I'm familiar with them and kind of like what Gwen's mentioned that a lot of people in this community forget about what we offer so I'm always trying to post pictures get our people out there get people active because we have a lot of cool stuff currently we have a lot of stuff we can add but right now we have a lot of options just if you ask any of the citizens of the town right now it's like hey did you know we have this more than likely you're gonna say no I had no idea that we did that so that's something I always like to push as a personal project is just each week each month try to take a picture of us doing something rather be kaying at Greenwood Lake fly fishing at the Liberty Lake which I'm glad Casey finally got that cleared out to where you can actually use it and I'll definitely say since I live right next to it before I would see one two people a week out there now like every day it's like 10 people plus out there fishing and that's during this time of

year where it's pretty cold so I can't wait until the spring and summertime more and more people will start using it but that's that's me and a nutshell I guess thank you thank you sir and I'll make a motion then that we select Bobby as aul first offer and this other fell I got his name here as a backup well however you want to write it all second by wi what this first alternate second alternate I mean unless that's complicated well it's just bylaws don't afford for it so I'm just that's why I'm I just like to go with what we what we have M Martin yes M Headley yes and m r unanimous you got me confused Foundation report nothing to report director's report um the splash pad I don't know if anyone's been by the past couple days we have a roof the metal for the roof finally came in and some of the uh fascia metal came in so that's on the side of the building as well they have been working on the footings for those shade coverings that we caught earlier early um the if you walk by and you see

plastic on top of the concrete or areas in on the outskirts of the concrete pad that's where those footings are um I got a message today that all of our all the those implements are being shipped to us I think they're leaving today so our benches picnic tables and shade coverings are on the way um Paul from Crawford told me that they are going to start concrete after it warms up a little bit just because concrete and this cold is terrible um the inside of the restroom building is complete just as I listed um talked about concrete they just started clearing and grubbing Fox Run Road uh they've they've removed some brush piles that we had at the top of the hill that are that would be on their project or their um the boundaries for that site so I know that they've made it up the hill um water and sewer the water lines complete sewer lines are about probably close to 75% they ran into an issue with the very last manhole that they had to set that a gas line was in the way so they're having to um make some course Corrections on that se line Swepco is currently starting the process of construction um they've taken some they've started to take some of their or they're starting to work on taking some of their power off of that power pull on the corner of Fox Run in Maine um Seth estimated that their completion date would be about three to four weeks what is the will we be ready to open in may I uh we had a meeting last Tuesday and I asked them what their confidence level was they said if and I hate to even say this because it's just

been one thing after another but if nothing major happens they're they're running ahead of schedules for May so may beginning of may we Pro possibly will be able to be done correct okay yep the goal is to and this was this was mention on the call that we had with every contractor involved in this entire project water sewer Road electricity and splash pad and all the engineers in between the goal is to have this completed in time to where we're able to not only open by may but also have time to test everything so that we're not out there the night before we set an open date trying to get things to work the way they're supposed to do you have a tenative open date or no typically it's Memorial Day I if it's me I want to push those dates a little bit further or earlier and later so that we can get as much use out of it as possible my preference would be early may but most municipalities choose Memorial Day to Labor Day we're typically a little bit warmer before and after those dates so yeah I I don't want to say play it by ear but I think right now the best thing we could do is play it by ear and then choose a date to open once we get to where you know maybe we're putting Landscaping in or putting the finishing touches on some fencing just so that we're % that we're going to be able to meet our goal um I've had a couple people ask me about the switchb the Switchback Trail at the East Loop of the lake this was the trail that was an Eagle Scout

project um Water and Sewer Commission they approved the construction of a new tank at our water treatment plant plant it is gigantic and it is right in the area where that trail head was going to be so we're kind of having to Pivot or to choose to shrink our parking lot SLT tril head area down a little bit that trail is completely clear um I mean and it's in from what I understand fairly decent shape and it switches back all the way to the top of the hill by that water treatment plant the only bummer is that when you ever whenever you get to the top of the hill you wind up with a fence in your face so rod rod pal is a green to push that fence back um it's just a matter of how close that tank is going to be whenever time comes when after they have it constructed I talked to Elliot today from Crafton toll in regard to the um Paving project from The Oaks to the Bell Park Oaks to Bell Park he said that he is not heard back from State the state yet after submitting 60% plans um he intends to call them tomorrow if he doesn't hear back by close business today I'll keep everybody updated as that comes how long does that usually take because I I noticed takes a long time there is a lot of bureaucracy involved there hadn't been change since November just wacky forums back and forth and partially I I don't know where the mixup was but somehow a project number got changed and um we were communicating about different projects between I was I had a different project number Elliot had a different project number and the state had a

different project number and for some reason all the project numbers were different but the project names were all the same and no one connected the dots so that set us back by whenever the mayor and I went and met with Whitney we kind of figured it out Whitney from ardot put me on the straight and narrow we learned that um we having issues with project numbers y the inclusive Park I actually had an exciting um Zoom meeting this morning I met with someone from Montreal Canada who is an expert in fundraising he's like a head hunter for fundraising he um finds every nonprofit or organization in your state and uh or top 100 companies in your area within 50 miles of you and gives you a list and gives you very specific strategies to fund raise with them so we're going to work with him and our small Committee of gals andh try to get the wheels turning on that what's his take what's his take like as far as our progress like the percentage how much oh what's his take oh sorry I understand that said it more clear zero he is he is actually funded by Little Tikes or the parent company of little ties which is the playground uh that we're the brand of playground we're building and Little Tikes has partnered with the nonprofit consultant that we partnered with unlimited play they don't charge us anything either so we've kind of just fallen into these Partnerships that are are free and could be advantageous if we use them

correctly on that note I don't know if the rest of the committee has seen but we were in oh yeah due south the it was a very nice article that was written up about our inclusive program our play program playground uh and so it was just a very nice article and T about how it was coming about and everything so I just wanted to say a shout out to the committee and to Casey for having this in Du South do it y our 2025 projects that we'll start to update on are um this is all the capital side of things stain the won Pavilion uh we've talked about a septic system I think that we'll start to delve into that a little bit further um just to explore options first and then go from there and then we're uh we reassigned our tap Grant yeah no our RTP Grant uh for a bike and pedestrian master plan something that's a little more up to dat and I'm waiting to hear back from Ardon on that once again forms on forms on forms um I I've updated the booking snapshot for the Pavilion so you'll see kind of a year year-over-year approach to how the pavilion's booked um you'll have a little bit more historical data and then also kind of an idea of what revenue is running it's not exact these are based on like what your average booking would be for a you know just what things average out to be

so it's going to give us a better idea of where we've been where we're going where we're at so the 25 these are things that have already been booked for this year that's correct yeah so we could have more bookings the rest year that's correct all right yeah yeah we can we can add to that number for sure um I've also brought in some supplementals you want to call them uh this is just for your information which is something Gwen I already had this after we talked the other day but I thought I'd bring it and it's not I don't think it's quite as specific as you want but it still gives you an idea of where our Capital money is going and again this shows you where we're at or where we've been our past last year 2023 and 2024 and then this also shows you uh the six years previous to that so we spent a shade over $2 million in two years on capital projects just by um working through backlog projects while I was doing that I got curious and I thought how much uh how much engineering money have we spent so the second page to that is it shows you how much we've spent on engineering for each of those projects and we spend a lot of money on engineering um we talk about it every year but it's almost to the point to where we could hire a part-time engineer to work through water sewer sidewalk Street storm and parks and probably still be come out ahead um yeah so the the past two years we spent $240,000 on engineering for

basically three projects three or four projects right [Music] yeah we've I think that I think that a lot of that is being soaked up and going back and forth on Splash Pad designed to we kind of we did there was some waffling for there was some waffling for a little bit is that what that 154,000 is from 23 is that like I don't see like where those numbers come from but I mean I guess it doesn't really matter yeah so do it say there's the total project yeah but like how that was accumulated it's yeah it's like I said it's not as specific as you want yet I'll start to drill down by project if you want to see those pass numbers specifically I can do that for sure um that 15 G4 we didn't have the splash pad fund yet so there would be some Splash Pad Engineering in that and then in 2023 we also uh spent some quite a bit of engineering money on some trail lighting yeah the trail [Music] lighting the last page that's kind of the grid breakdown um is this shows training that I'm seeking out this year we we budgeted sub what I feel like was a substantial amount of money for um me to receive some training I don't want to say that some of it's unnecessary but a lot of this is necessary just for the splash pad um some of the governing bodies in the health department like to see that's the first one the second one and then there's also a sec a third

training course through the National Parks and Recreation Association they like to see those three so I'm trying to get those knocked out as soon as possible one of the ones that um is outside of the scope of my job I have a water distribution license technically it could still be applicable to a splash pad you're Distributing water um but is extremely complicated to obtain and the only cost to the city is lodging to stay somewhere for three days being that the city is a member of the Arkansas Royal Water Association there's no cost for the training and I would be extremely grateful if you would allow me to go renew that license it's very hard to get has like a 133% pass rate in the state what do you use it for what right maybe not you right now but what taking these taking the certified pool operator class I'm breezing through it because I have all this distribution stuff it's just a lot of it's water math sure same qualification level we required to hold in that position it's a substantial license so do we need to add that to our budget no everything I have is inside the budget still I mean just being transparent yeah I just wanted to let like I the last time I went and renewed it it was there was some questions about it so I don't I don't want to be you want to head that off I want to be weird about it yeah if someone says what's that have to do with your job it's a water license it's not a

park license we have a splash pad the having that water license is helping me out some and I think that's all I've got unless yall have questions what's Madison trail so that's a um it's in Madison Wisconsin and it's a trail like a it's the biggest trail training seminar in the United States anybody have any questions all right Tom do you have anything that you want to share with us you probably to he yes sir I have the microphone um the the website gu brought up recently and it is is the website is ugly oh thank you very ugly um and right now some of the redirects on the city website are broken David Jamal wants like $1,500 to basically totally transform it there's already $1,000 in the budget for David for Jamal that we don't use Tom am I right unless it's just like unless it's somehow split up between depart I know everything to that's okay I know that I know that David Jamal does not bill us directly for website Services we do pay but saying the parks

he's wondering if the Thousand that's in the Parks budget is part of a broken up between departments thing that we do with Jamal digital got it okay so he want $1,500 to bring it all into our City website or existing website separate website I separate more or less said take the data from the website the way it is right now and then take what you did for the Police website and replicate it make it look just like the Police website but it's just a different page it looks really good place one can we not just have it under the city is there a reason you want a separate website because that's the way it's always been let's let's change that you know what I mean yeah I mean we're Greenwood Parks you know let's not yeah be Greenwood parks.com or you know just go to Greenwood you click on it it shouldn't redirect you it should just open a new page just like it does when you click on the planning or any of that like I I've always found that kind of weird so let me go back and ask him what he would charge just to add a page to the green P maybe and then I can just use yeah I didn't know if that was split up okay so the parks website was built by Brook Holland who used to be the mayor's assistant back while long ago and I always did I really never knew why she did it on Weebly and did this separate thing I really I asked a lot of people did ask about it back then it was I think before we even had a Parks Commission even it was just Parks committee you know and and I don't think there's any real good explanation other than there was some veteran Stone stuff

and I don't know if they wanted to well and she could probably easily manipulate it if she's owning the site and was maintaining it which is great maybe that was necessary at the time but the information we have right now is pretty static so I think having why couldn't there's no reason it be right I'm not partial to it because it's ugly yeah so there's no reason it could not be part of the city's just website or a page on it the only thing that I could see issue with is potentially registration for events but I can work that out with David probably that's what I wondered because in like billion bookings does that happen through there didn't you have some service let me let me ask David to see what his recommendation is and then we can kind of go from there that work okay this is how you ended fiscal year 2024 and as far as your uh restricted funds and the operating funds that basically you have these are the funds you have control over the parks A&P Grant fund you'll notice ended with zero because you actually were a little bit in the deficit category so City sales and use tax had to that in order to bring it to zero but if you'll notice the budget was actually about $25 so um then a lot of the reason for that was there was a lot of carryover that happened last year that didn't get in the budget that was invoices that was anticipated to be paid in 23 that were paid in 24 this year we're carrying those over anything that we pay now that was a 23 we put in your budget as a carryover item and then it'll be a wash um as far as the restricted for the trails at 961 86 balance is still in there it's still available it's still

restricted for Trails as far as your Parks inclusive Park is concerned it's 10,868 it's made up of two monies 9,868 is the amount contributed by A&P that Parks is holding on to in order to distribute at the point in time when it's being requested usually am is given that money for a specific item they're giving it for a piece of a playground equipment that they chose and said we're GNA here's the money for that and so you're it's just being parked there because you have an inclusive Park restricted fund there's also a Community member that came in and donated $1,000 and so it's in there as well and eventually that's going to be transferred over to wherever the funds will be held as far as the 501c3 once it's established is um maintained it'll be transferred out that um inclusive park has not received your $275,000 um committed amount that's still in your city sales and Ed tax it's still sitting in this $215,000 um as far as your budget is concerned you know you've committed 150 of it yeah I believe 150 or 125 125,000 so that's committed for 2025 budget so you are pushing off to 2026 the remaining portion of what's committed for it because in discussions we don't believe that they'll be at a point where I think they're doing it in phases and as they raise money they'll start doing projects and we figure that um that's probably an amable solution to where your fund Reserve is and then at

the U bottom line you uh you're increase from your balance in 2023 and the increase is happening because of the splash pad that 487 th000 is still committed money it's still in the bank as of the end of the year but it's committed specifically for the splash pad so even though you've increased your fund balance by 15,000 you've decreased the fund balance specifically because of the um amount that has now been shifted to committed funds not un unrestricted you have 215,000 basically of unrestricted money your revised budget was you were supposed to end with 255,000 but the end of year numbers specifically to cover the parks Grant and some other things that came up you missed that uh revised budget by about $440,000 as far as the um increase and decrease the budget amount you are 68 64% higher than the budget with what your Allin dollar amounts are specifically the um $714,000 is 64% higher than the budget specifically though it's it's tabulating in again the committed monies as far as your budget concern you can go through and at your perusal it's um was that on was that handed you got it in writing okay you can peruse that if you have any questions you can get back with me um you do see on your city sales and use tax for parks that the amount for the city sales used tax revenue did increase we are above what we budgeted the four and a half% is it was more like six% or a little over four and a half% five

something so that the amount of that we're we're budgeting a 3 and a half% I believe increase for 2025 you know that because you've seen the budget as far as the uh lastly I think it's this last page the parks Grant expenditure budget if you wanted to know how the dollar amounts broke out by the categories and by the specific event within the categories that's up there on your screen right now the public relations falls into three categories Fall Festival Christmas in the Park and freedom Fest and you'll see that you budgeted $90,000 in 2024 oh the movies in the park as well excuse me you ended up spending $ 88,9 that's a th23 better than what the budget was for public relations Capital Improvements there was this $ 7400 that came through as an unbudgeted CIP expense that was carry over from 23 that was specifically for the lighting maybe I don't no disco of course yes and then the second bridge at Liberty Park was 8,000 and we adjusted the budget for the uh clearing cost as well which we paid so you you were over by that $7,800 in the capital Improvement projects otherwise you would have been pretty close as far as the dollar amounts are concerned Capital expenditures the inflatable scre you were 616 less than what you budgeted you budgeted 295 came in at 288 you started with 1539 before the last before the final month of December you ended up with um expenditures of public relations of a, I mean a expense versus budget of 1,023 616 those are surpluses Capital

Improvements was $7,800 over when you add all that up your your actual year-to-date deficit was $5,700 City sales and use tax covered that so we don't end carrying over a deficit in the year my balance sheet has to have everything positive so we knew there was going to be some coverage the worst it could be is 7,200 and ended up being 5719 and as far as the budget is concerned we're having a budget study session right after we end this meeting today there's going to be some going back to the drawing boards the budget is not where we need it to be as a city it's way not good um I will give you a little bit of why let me go to I was doing some works here here's the parks department all right let's look at all of your monies so you have a Parks operation which is funded by general fund this is not money that you have actually in revenues for you just have basic expenses you do have Revenue but it's it's revenues that you um gain from the County sales tax and grants mostly the County sales tax and you notice that um we were budgeting 263,000 we ended up at 247 that's because the County sales tax was significantly lower than we thought it actually was um no growth so we're budgeting no growth for 2025 but down here on the bottom you had a $133,000 deficit in 2024 you budgeted a $6,000 Surplus surpluses minor or zero is where you want to be because you're not asking

General to fund that you have to have a balanced budget and in order to have a balanced budget this number right here should be zero that's saying your spending exactly what your budgeted Revenue stream is so if the revenue stream increases you could go over your budgeted expense line as long as you don't net a deficit when you net a deficit it's not B it's not balanced well you notice you're not balanced in uh 25 either you're right now budgeting a $199,000 deficit and that 19,000 is carrying over to the general fund where the general fund's got a the unrestricted balance has to fund that and that's what it says if I were to scoot over here amount provided from general fund to balance the budget now the law says you have to have a balanced budget but the way we're balancing that budget is pulling from the general fund you cannot we're not using Parks um a and uh City sales and use tax to balance it that's a separate restricted money that's based on the taxpayers that generated uh the vote that said you they're going to pay that tax tax and then they also stipulated how you were going to use it and you can't use it to cover your salaries and your operations it's for specific things so that's why that's isolated your Parks A&P Grant fund you're looking at uh is restricted City sells and use tax you had a threshold of 250,000 it looks like if you live on that budget that you currently have you're going to exceed that but still 298,000 I'd like to get that built back up a little bit before you start going on some other large projects so all in all you're going to be looking at a Parks fund account Allin of 37,000 now the problem with your city sales and use tax is that you have

275,000 that is committed to the all-inclusive Park you have 125,000 in your budget so you're looking at 15,000 that they could call in if they if they get really going and they're ready for it and they need that money that's going to come out of your 298,000 that's not budgeted just so you know so we've got to kind of look at that so this 19,000 is probably going to be something that um depending on how other dep departments come in and everybody knows it I mean even planning knows it we've talked with police we've talked everybody I'll I'll just show it to you might as well this is what it looks like um we're gonna oh let me see if I can reduce that not no no so we start the general fund at the end of 2023 with 2 mil7 in the general fund that's the unrestricted monies that can go anywhere the only thing is the um departments that fall under the general

fund are General and admin fire police Animal Control parks and planning all of these departments here we also have a resolution that because there was a surplus that was created with the arpa shifting to pay the public service um police salaries in 201 23 we generated a surplus well it was originally dedicated that first trunch of 972 th000 was was earmarked for the water Sewer Commission from the water sewer department so there was a resolution presented to the council that said we're going to preserve that 972 even though the Surplus generated 1.125 million they said that 972 we're going to go ahead by resolution and commit to the water sewer that has yet to be pulled out of that in 24 they're not ready for it so that 2780 or 2,780 is going to be reduced by the 972 but in 24 these were the dollar amounts the 379,000 deficit 530 deficit for animal control Parks was your 13 as I showed you then planning was $35,000 to the good so that that is going to when you take all that into consideration reduce your general fund unassigned balance from 2 mil7 take out the 972 automatically you're down to 1 million6 and if you notice that carries over up here to the top for the budget for 2025 every single Department right now in 2025 is a deficit to the tune of 1.23 n million out of the 1.6 if everybody hits that budget the general funds unrestricted balance will be at

$447,000 my Reserve Comfort level is a million that is one catastrophe one one event away from nobody having any money in the general fund and remember that's after 2012's Revenue stream that's a deficit over and above what everybody's Revenue is are the Departments responsible to pay back to the general fund no they're part of the general fund they are on andm to the general fund now we parse out Revenue to each of those departments which is what they're supposed to be balancing to the revenue stream and whenever they can't if there's a good reason for it there's nothing that says general can't fund them and going along we as you see in 2024 some departments need it police always needs it because they don't have a city sales and use tax to fund their Capital side so we use the franchise fees or the franchise taxes kind of to offset most of that police um deficit so the revenue stream that you see up here in the general department that $379,000 Surplus that was generated that is including the amounts for the franchise taxes and that will help offset the deficit in the police we know that we understand that we do have to watch it and control it and so we have to go back to the drawing board on a lot of this to get them to focus or re refocus on a need and a want get rid of the wants and they also have to be a little more cognizant of what the inflationary increases are against what their current 2024 spend was because uh what we're trying to do is eliminate what I call Pad in their budget what are the biggest differences in police fire this year versus last year to make that that'll be dis that

will be discussed at the meeting right after this one yeah because we got a plan on those two already established streets not in this but street is also in a situation where there's going to have to be some push push off this is not an acceptable budget so your contribution is 19,4 it might come to where we have to go back and look at it we've got a plan trust me we' we've held it we were here all day yesterday um going over it uh I specifically had Street and we had the mayor and we were talking about the general fund specifically we had um we talked with police in fire today and we have a we have something that we want to present so we'll get that number where it needs to be and we're going to do it responsibly we're not going to just willy-nilly cut things we're going to cut it in a responsible Manner and come up with a A Better plan but I wanted you guys as a commission to realize Where We Are this will not be what's what's ultimately our budget okay that's where any questions any comments I would like to make a I would like to thank uh Mr price for his

willingness to be a part of our committee uh also just for clarification purposes Mrs Martin you are going to head up the recreational committee yes sir correct okay and um any other questions or concerns or comments All right we adjourn oh have have a motion to adjourn motion to to adjourn I second the motion no you make the motion I make any want I can second thank you as soon as coming out of my mouth I was like I'm not saying the right thing but you thought he was making the motion your brain said but he can't make the motion he doesn't vote though unless he has welcome to my War way down there in the back 40 yes nobody's like to keep an eye on Otis today are the biggest