We have a poor.

We'll go ahead and get started.

Thank you all for attending the September parts of Rio.

First one of the appreciate that.

So uh we'll just get started with uh the June minutes.

It's been a while.

We took a look at that.

I'll entertain a motion.

Okay.

We'll go to second.

Everybody's got to do second.

All right.

Any other discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Got that.

Alright.

Let's jump in.

The vote's the capital improvement.

This is very tiny up there, but you have a printout in front of you.

You'll see really, I mean, kind of in years past, we really focus on next year because those of us who've been on this commission have been around 2027 and on, it is very fluid, it changes.

So really what we would request the commission to focus on is next year's.

And I can tell you everything in the estimated 2025 column that will be out the door spent.

So we've made a lot of progress, and I think in years past, this year's gonna be eye-opening for some because they're used to us having huge reserves, huge carry forwards, and we don't have that because we finally made a lot of progress, and I think citizens see that.

So in the past, there's kind of been a lot of money that just gets moved around and it's there, but no longer have that, but and it is for very good reasons.

This money is here to spend, not to sit in the account and collect interest.

So the biggest expense is it's okay with y'all.

2025 really will be in project updates, so I'll just save it for that.

And there's not many line items in 2026.

So if it's okay with you all, I'll just go line by line and kind of explain that.

Okay.

Alright, so the biggest one is May Branch Greenway.

And I know that 5.1 million dollar number, that looks like a lot of money, but on the back page of the grants and revenues that you'll see, we have three almost 3.5 million dollars of that is funded by grants, so it looks like a big number, but it's not really that much whenever you think of just our 1-8 cent sales and use tax.

And we are working with the city's government relations manager on that.

You know, we made a lot of progress on that ORLP grant with National Park Service.

They've kind of gone dormant, I think I would say, so we're calling in our state senators to get that ball rolling again.

We had a Chris, you've been here in Madeline.

We had to do that the first time and got a lot of movement, so we're doing that now and very proactive in that because we're ready for reimbursement.

Okay, so are we just not hearing from them or getting some pushback?

It we heard from them, and then whenever we said, hey, we've supplied you all of the information.

Where are we on being able to submit a reimbursement?

Because we phase one a all of that we can get our 50% cost share back, but nothing.

And we tried three times and nothing.

So we're going to Bozeman's office, gonna work with them.

He was successful in the past, but that's where we are because we don't want to sit there and keep saying, Well, we haven't heard from them, we haven't heard from them.

No, let's move.

We have a lot of momentum going.

We don't want to stop just because of your office, pretty much.

Okay.

So oh, do we need to you know protest?

I say let Chris Hoover work his magic.

Yeah, but if you want to tell me something, he will actually be here for a two o'clock meeting with me.

And I would be more than happy to communicate anything you want.

Yeah, I think let him work his magic.

And then if we need to do more, we will absolutely take it.

Yes.

So the next one, Tillis Park parking lottery services.

Sorry.

Well, we'll question on that.

Um the summary you had on page 10 regarding the May Breach Greenway.

You noted in there due to delays and increased costs resulting from Sudge National Park Service.

Uh plan to contribute an additional 1.6 million.

Is that uh part of this, or is that another 1.6 million?

It is included.

If you'll go to the grants and contributions, the Arkansas, the ADPHT, the Arkansas Department of Parks Heritage and Tourism, the governor's office actually told them that they were going to direct that amount of money to this, and then the National Park Service came back and said, Hey, we can give you that extra 371,000.

So it's kind of mixed together, and that's where that 1.6 is.

Oh, okay.

So it's the 371 and the main 267 there.

Okay.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Alright, Tillis Park parking lot resurfacing.

That is new a line item.

You know, we've done a lot of great improvements to that park and kind of driving out there.

You have this big awesome new inclusive playground, the new walking trail basketball courts, the parking lot on the north side is it needs researchers, okay?

And it's do we want to just delay it for something we think is gonna happen?

And for me and us, we really talked about it.

This is something tangible, we know it needs to happen, and we can move on it quick, provided this is ultimately approved by the commission and then the board.

So we think it's necessary, and if we were talking, there's big potholes.

If we were talking just a few isolated ones, absolutely we would patch it, but there's a lot of alligator cracking.

We need to do deep patching and just resurface it.

Let's do it right instead of band-aiding stuff because then it becomes a nuisance for everyone.

So we're proposing to do that next year.

It's fine, it's fine.

Okay, it is perfectly fine.

I think Brent said 2008-ish.

Yeah, that one was in 2008, and no one was around when this one was done.

Okay.

That's kind of how we gauge things here.

Yeah, Berns are go-to, so when he retires, we're in trouble for years.

The next the Creekmore Park pool upgrades, that is to replace the grates, the fiberglass grades to more plastic ones, and that's something we did communicate to the citizens that we were planning to do.

That absolutely needs to happen.

So that's where that is.

Not too yes.

What about the pump?

We talked about that before.

We have that, it is going to be a substantial cost.

We have that in 27 and 28.

And yeah.

Can you wait that mom?

We in an in an ideal world, our proposal was to do it at the same time as the bathhouse and diving well enclosure.

That got mixed, so here we are.

And you know, we're gonna continue to baby it and do what we can.

It's just one of those.

We have to have money.

So we think we think it'll be okay next year, but it certainly cannot go any further down the road without service impacts.

The outdoor restroom improvements next year we have Spraddling Park, and we used to.

I know Tillis Park, I can't remember the exact number.

I think we allocated something like a hundred thousand or maybe it was a hundred and fifty.

So, what we've done working with Patrick, I don't know if y'all have met him, our facility supervisor working with him.

We prefer the center block partition.

I'm gonna call them partitions that do the stalls.

We want to keep that, so now we're just retrofitting with solid metal partitions and then new doors.

It's a lot less cost, but again, it's what's needed.

We don't have to go in there and get the whole thing to make the improvements, and that allows us to put money elsewhere.

So it's working out till us.

We are getting quotes on that, and we should get that rolling in winter, provided nothing bad happens.

The outdoor park pavilion and shade.

I think we're we've all been here when the skate and bike park community they've came to us and they wanted shade.

I agree 100%.

We just didn't have the money, and now we're able to do that in something that's sustainable and not something cheap to solve an issue.

So we're proposing to do that and do it right.

And then neighborhood park improvements.

We have spradling park that was on our list, and we really want to focus first on that walking trail.

And I would say when I wrote this, there is a statement that says, provided we have the staff, we can do some of that work in-house.

I would like to redact that statement because I don't think we're going to have the staff to do it.

So it will be something that we have to contract out, but I just want to make you all aware that there is going to be a discrepancy when we read this.

Is it this in October that that line will be removed?

And then with anything extra, I'm really gonna leave it to Brian and our maintenance staff that are out there every day and know really what needs to be addressed, and that's how we're gonna do it.

But right now, the walking trail is what's in most need of addressing, so we'll go that route.

And then Riley Farm Park to be fully transparent with you.

This is this allocation is something I've kind of used as a I'm gonna say I have delayed it knowing that where sales and use tax has been coming in short.

This was the only project not really out for bid.

So we've kind of delayed it and pulled back, and we've done that for the past two, two and a half years, I believe.

I know it's been at least two, and you know, Riley Farm Park, I think they're becoming the community's becoming more engaged and wanting more, and you know, rightfully so.

So our recommendation is not to push that back any further.

But we also understand sales tax revenues are not performing as well as we hoped.

So seems like a lot 410,000.

That we got the estimate where that comes the 410,000.

The main expense are those pedestrian bridges.

There's 320 linear foot, and that's what the issue is, and we're not going to go back with the treated lumber because it's just a maintenance issue, and kind of the preliminary design we did, it gets rid of the main bridge, pedestrian bridge that just comes out through the park, and we're actually rerouting around that little lake, which lets us eliminate that.

But we want to go with something sustainable, not something cheap that we know is going to be an issue in two years.

Is where that is.

I think the initial estimate that they gave for that, it came back at like 800,000.

I said that's not gonna work.

So we're working on that for sure, and then the big ticket item is tennis court resurfacing.

You know, we did the survey in 2024, I think it was, and one of the top priority citizens wanted to see was outdoor sports facilities.

Tennis, we've heard from the tennis community.

You know, we heard it of a big project that I know the board or the commission pushed back on because of the impact it was going to have on the green space in support of that.

But this project that we're proposing is just using the same footprint as these eight tennis courts, it's going tennis, resurfacing.

The bottom four courts that we have, they have an asphalt surface.

Andy handle with McClellan's here, he's the engineer on it.

Uh we're going to completely remove that.

It has a pad on it and do a concrete overlay, so you have a nice plank surface, and then the top four courts resurfacing.

Then we did apply for a community assistance grant through the Arkansas Department of Economic Development for this, provided we get it.

It's I'm just gonna estimate it's about $900,000 in grant funds, which would come back at $250,000 match.

So we have that, but if there's some chance we do not get that grant, this million dollars, we can do a lot with that, but we just really built in a lot of ones and extras into that grant application because we could apply for up to a million and a half, so but there are areas that we can cut back on that to fit within this CIP allocation.

Does that have funds that they put back for capital permits from so they capital their opinion of capital and ours are very very different because they are a nonprofit, that's not what they're meant to do, but they are they have been actively working with us, they helped us with the grant application.

We found it, we asked for their professional expertise to draft it, and they are willing to solicit sponsors and kind of private dollars.

I mean, we can't engage in that, but they asked if they could do it, and I said, Hey, if you can get more funding, please, because the when we resurfaced, or we did the pad in 2015-ish, Wada applied for two grants and got them.

I mean, it was $15,000, but $15,000 is better than no dollars.

So they did that, and they are still doing that on their behalf to hopefully maybe get some more funds.

And then that's 2026, pretty much.

I know 2027 we moved up a lot.

You'll see in the outdoor park pavilion in shade.

We have a lot of wooden pavilions.

There are Hasselon Brian staff, they're rotting, deteriorating.

We need to address them.

And the top two are Caroline Cross Park, that huge one that we had, a couple park commission meetings under, and then also at Harley A.

Wilson Park.

I know those look like big numbers, but can we please just do it right?

Go in with what we did, like at John Bell Junior Park.

Let's just do it right and make it last 34 years instead of going back with wood.

Shade structures.

What about farmers market?

That they this is not in my department, but the solar canopies on the farmers market.

I believe they plan to start construction later this year on that.

Speaking of farmers market, so I have where are we in the outdoor restroom line item in 2027?

I did include a farmers market restroom.

That's a request we've heard for probably 10 years.

And I'm excited, I don't know if anybody else will, but they have a lot of big cities like New York City.

They've had a lot of success with something called the Portland Loo.

And I mean it's a glorified port a potty.

But it is nice, it blends in with the aesthetics.

It's pretty much anti-vandal resistant.

People can't live in there because it's open air.

You can heat it, it can go on septic traditional sewer, or they also have to do a port-a potty option, which I would not be my preference.

But you know, that's what it is.

But I mean, it would replace the porta potty the farmers market's already doing, and as downtown continues to grow, you know, the work of Main Street Fort Smith and everything they're doing, the Fort Smith Downtown Business Association.

It does make sense to finally invest in a permanent outdoor restroom facility.

So I think it's smart.

I know they've they've had to wait a few years, decade or so, but hopefully, technology and innovation caught up, and we have a what we feel is a good solution.

Yeah, only I guess it's a question or how that on the uh Carolina Cross and mainly the Caroline Cross, $500,000 for a steel uh basically pavilion.

Holy cow, I've built 3,000 square foot house for that.

It's building something in your backyard and building something that the general public's in.

I mean, if you look at John Bell Jr., that was 600 grand.

It costs a lot of money, and with Caroline, you have that big one, you have the one up on top of the hill, and then you have the one on the back side, the east side that we removed because I mean it needed to go that you also need to replace.

So it's more than just one that you're replacing, and then with that current one, I'm not gonna guarantee we can use that same concrete pad.

So you have the purchase price installation and also any site prep concrete work, which we can on.

I don't think I want y'all to do the demo on that big pavilion.

Not that you can't, but I'd rather someone else take on that liability.

So that would cover all three of those.

That's our intent.

And again, even the one at Harley A.

Wilson Park, it is a big pavilion as well, and it is very much used whenever they have the basketball league, the tournaments out there.

There's a lot of people, and it is very much needed.

Guys have any questions on the other lines?

The acting property is it was that comes from.

It is still a blank space.

That was a request by administration that we just have a blank space saying, hey, it's on our horizon, it's not allocated yet, but we still need to have it in our back of the mind our minds that hey, we do want to develop that in the future.

Have we touched on uh all or most of the items when we did the big survey?

Yes.

Now that with the 2026 allocation to really hit that shade aspect and outdoor sports facilities, and honestly, it was outdoor sports facilities and um playground equipment and shade, those were the top three, and we I think we've done a good job of accomplishing that.

Do we have any thought about um John Bell Junior Park?

There's so much space out there for soccer, and it's just I mean, you really can't play soccer out there without getting hurt.

Yes, I think that's what I hear about all the time.

It's like you built that giant park out there, and there's so much space out there, and it's great, but you can't really play soccer or anything.

I agree.

The only place you can play soccer really is you know, out of Ben Garen in it.

That they don't like you.

I'm not going to say which two leagues, but I think it would be pretty obvious.

There are two soccer leagues plus a rugby league who are interested in entering a lease agreement for operating at John Bell Junior Park.

An issue where honestly, I just haven't had time to ask the question.

Is that lease agreement?

So it's working with the state level to make sure our lease agreement language is meet satisfies that criteria to where we don't have to pay a lot of money for something.

And of course, whenever we get to that point, it will go out our standard process or request for proposals from any interested entities they have.

And we'll just kind of go through an evaluation thing.

It might be something our preference would be all three of them work together.

And I think that's something we could include in the lease agreement language, but there is interest.

And for this is my opinion, and you can feel free to chime in here.

But John Bell Jr.

is a lot of maintenance right now because it is not developed.

And so people think, oh, you're expanding parks.

Well, part of expanding John Bell Jr.

It's actually decreasing maintenance on us.

But I think kind of that perception is people do not want to spend money expanding a park which is already there.

So we've really focused on investing what we have.

But I think that realization that you bring up is we have that.

We need to do something.

I 100% agree.

And I honestly, I whenever I was preparing this, I did not like pushing John Bell Jr.

back to 2028.

But those are two pretty big leagues that you have going that are just piecemealing over in the Southside over at the MLK Park over at Ben Garren.

And they would really prefer.

I mean, at least I hear from them all the time.

They want, I've met with both of them multiple times.

They want John Bell Jr.

because there's room for expansion, there's plenty of parking, and honestly, there's a place less restrictions because one of the questions one of them asks, Well, what do you charge?

I'm going, it's not gonna be any different than what we do at Kelly Ballfield.

You pay us $10 a year.

We cover utilities, you take care of the maintenance of the fields.

I mean, that's how I see it happening.

Of course, that can change, but I don't think we should unless we're gonna change everyone's, we don't need to change one.

I agree with you.

It hurt to push John Bell Jr.

off.

I will I'll say that it hurt, but it's okay.

But I do think we still have a solid solid projects for next year, and I again I foresee us revisiting 2027 and beyond.

Well, can you see that lease happening next year?

Or sooner than later.

If I can ever find the time, we're we're we have some staffing issues that we're kind of forced to work through, and we if I have the time, yes.

It's gonna be so the issues for the soccer fields is it the grass, the field and maintaining it basically having somebody to mean it the soccer.

I mean, I agree with you, I wouldn't want to play soccer on that if I was a true soccer player.

100% agree, and the original plan, you might have been the only one on the commission, was to turf those two fields, and that was the plan.

We had the bids ready to go, and it was oh well, we want to divert that money to something else.

So then it just went to seeding it, and that's kind of what you see today.

Okay, and I mean, I'll be transparent with you guys again.

That's 2026.

I really built that way too, it's tangible.

We know exactly what we're going to do.

So if you go trying to move money, you know 100% without a doubt what you're going to be impacting, not a oh, well, this is what we think we want to do, which we've done that in the past because sometimes we don't have a plan in place, but we do now.

If I hear anything feedback from administration or any discussions from the board, we'll of course update this.

That's fine.

Yeah, this is good starting of the discussion, and then, like I said, as long as you're not uh crunch to get into reviewed our the board has it scheduled for to review at a study session on October 28th, so plenty of time there.

Okay, very good.

Good discussion.

Thank you for doing that.

All right, let's jump into project updates.

Tillis Park inclusive playground.

This is just an aerial of it.

It is absolutely amazing.

This was the I would say the only park we really had the space with natural shade and not having to go in and cut down all these trees.

It is great.

I love this picture because it shows you all the shade.

Of course, there is an area of the swing bay, it's not shaded, which can't be perfect.

But I think we got a lot of natural shade into this with the design.

This is a video I will play, and this I took yesterday.

So we did open this quantus that we just passed by.

We opened it silently over this past weekend.

It's opened the toddler area and the swing bay, not quite ready.

We still have the fencing to go around the toddler area.

But there is just a lot of play packed into this.

And we're excited.

I've played on it.

Brian hasn't yet.

But it it's fun.

It's definitely for older children.

I will say that.

That was one of well, you have stuff for little kids to do.

This is for older children.

Okay, we're talking 12 and up, but of course the smaller ones can still play on it.

But if the I'll just say I am not tall enough to do some of it.

I think there's video proof somewhere.

But no, just so much play packed into this.

It's awesome.

And something about this, you know, we're one of less than 10 to feature this quantas, the infinity symbol.

Ours is unique in that we worked with landscape structures and we maximized how tall it can go.

So we got like an extra eight inches, which I don't think it's a lot, but when you're up there, it's a lot.

It's a lot, but definitely take the kids out there.

You go guys go out there and play on it.

It is fun.

And then this, the Hedra model, this is for our little toddlers, ages two to five and even younger.

Again, a lot of play packed into a small footprint that I think they will enjoy.

And I think we're the first in this region to have the Hedra model.

And then something, you know, you wouldn't think much, but the kids they love the turf berms, they love to go through tunnels.

We incorporated that.

You know, it's something easy that you can include in there.

But that's where we are.

We hope the fencing will be complete later this week.

We hope.

But I will say for all of our projects, I think this is the one location where people have for the most part stayed outside of the safety fence.

Yes.

And for that, I am very, very grateful.

So we were we were hoping they would, and they did so very nice.

And I think it has a lot to do with the improvements we made in the increased park traffic because you kind of have that natural policing of it.

Yeah, so it looks better in person.

Yes, it does.

It looks like it does.

It is awesome.

Yeah, not the most professional word, but that is what it is.

It's pretty colors too.

Yeah, from the road, you can see we love it.

I'm excited.

And then the parking lot improvements, phase two, those are complete.

It will be going to a the board for approval.

It came in a thousand dollars under budget.

I know that's not a lot, but it's better than over budget and on budget.

So we'll take it.

Very pleased with that.

Our maintenance staff, I don't know what y'all call them.

What do you call the dinosaur teeth?

Yeah, we're there's cathedral stone.

Okay, there you go.

So they did these.

We have issues with people liking to pull on the grass, and so they went and line these out so people cannot pull on the grass unless they want serious damage to their vehicle.

So that was something we added.

Let me see if I have another picture.

Okay.

I do have another angle.

So right here, you can kind of see that's new curb and gutter.

We added that through the cost savings that shears came in.

That project were able to replace that.

It needed to be replaced.

But to be able to, and I know it doesn't look like much, but we're able to add that, and then also address this ADA and drainage throughout that putt putt area.

It no longer holds water, and that stuff we were able to incorporate into this.

So very, very pleased with it.

Go back to the picture just before this up there on the top right.

Those are the tents course.

We were talking about yes.

Yep.

Okay, thank you.

The only thing I know is actually coming in with everything being new.

The uh plaque right there as you come into this parking lot right here.

Um it looks old, it looks beat up.

The this because someone vandalized the stones, and we're we just haven't had time to glue it back on.

Okay, you are correct.

So I think they're in Amber's office, aren't they, Julian?

Did you have a trying to put oh no?

Um sandwich or reverb that plaque in there, you know.

When you have new things, the old things stick out.

Agreed with you.

Agreed.

But everything looks great.

It does.

We're very, very happy with it.

I think I mean it's all new.

Yeah, it is.

Almost.

We have the tennis courts to go.

Yeah.

It doesn't as well.

It's an on-board project.

Yeah.

So next up, the bathhouse and dining wheel enclosure.

Of course, I have to go back to 1948 here.

And then here's it, just a comparison of them.

I mean, it's night and day.

And you know, we were talking yesterday in 1948.

That was like a premier bathhouse facility.

Think about it, and it's just aged over time.

Now we have a new modern one.

It is a good good thing.

And then just kind of some photos.

You guys have seen it from the road.

This photo right here is from the state swim meet.

It was packed.

All the citizens, they loved it.

They were sending pictures at everyone.

I know during the local swim meet, the tide riders host.

There was one Ian, you all know Ian.

He sent a text message saying that some of a screenshot of a parent had sent Tom, his son, saying that they wish they would have came to this meet instead of another one because of how nice our facility was.

Whenever the girls came in the bathroom and they screamed because it was clean.

First time they had seen a clean bathroom, I was like, man, I was like, if a clean bathroom is all that took you to make you happy, alright.

How was the regular usage of the pool this summer?

We compared to previous years.

So the bathhouse was not open, all of it, but it was still steady, if not a little more.

And we are going to really market the cleanliness and the update to the facility.

So you have all that shade shelter too.

Yeah, that's really nice.

Adults can sit and watch everybody have fun.

Yes, and then you can't really see it in this picture, but when you drive by, these are the original gates to the bathhouse.

We had them powder coated and incorporated them back into the design.

And then I didn't have an updated picture, and I'm kind of mad.

But in this picture, you'll see this is still exposed concrete.

It is now blue, the same as that back wall.

Just one of those little OCD things.

But I didn't have an updated picture of a good one that wasn't.

We've since moved into there, so I didn't want to take away.

And then of course, just storefront.

Original brick and the lobby desk.

And then Oak Cemetery retaining wall.

It is complete.

They did a great job, and instead of just doing the half of the wall through working with street department and the engineer, we're able to do a slope wall, and we actually got to replace the entire thing for the same cost.

Oh, and with that, our staff will start the cemetery staff asked, and we're going to work with Cottner Monuments to make sure those stones we set them as they need to be reset.

We'll start doing that as we have time.

Then additional updates, Hillcrest Park improvements.

We have a few community members who are have designated themselves as site superintendents and kind of got a lot of feedback.

The contractor has, so we had a design revision to kind of accommodate some of their requests, and also us, so that we got it sent yesterday, so hopefully those improvements will take place.

Maybe Ranch Greenway phase 1B.

We have a meeting with the railroad September 25th for one of the railroad crossings.

So we'll get that.

Of course, we have that tap grant, a million dollars in tap funds for this, so we sent 60% plans to R Dot.

We had to send them as 60% as R dot, but our plans are pretty much 90% complete because it has to go through their review process.

We got those comments back.

The engineer half associates is working on making those changes and meeting with them.

Creekmore Park tennis courts.

Again, Andy's here.

Hopefully, he'll give me a preliminary site layout in the next week or two.

There you go.

There we go this week.

So excited about that.

I know the tennis community is excited.

Sisterna Park pump house replacement.

We bid it out.

It came back nowhere in the vicinity of being on budget.

So I think it was anywhere between like 225,000 to 422,000.

That was not going to happen, so it is in a redesign phase.

But working with the engineer and also maintenance staff, we have it to where we think we can substantially reduce the cost rather than just say, well, those are the bids we got for going with it.

I don't feel comfortable doing that, so we will rebid it sometime in the near future.

Is there a plan B kind of in the background for that?

We just feel that I know we've always had issues with that.

People throw soap in there and everything.

I don't think we've really, I think in years past we have, but the last two years, I don't think we've had that issue.

I really don't think so.

Once we start designating more time to shut it down, yeah, didn't give him a chance to mess with it.

And it really helps with us having through partial funding from the CBID.

We have a dedicated staff that go along that streetscape.

You know, the PD has a dedicated officer, the C VID funds that's down there.

So there's a lot more patrol to where it decreases the opportunity for that.

And if they see it, they can address it.

And I think that's really been happening and what has made that to where okay, yes, this fountain we can make it work.

Okay.

And that's kind of my thought is I mean, we just don't want to throw money at it just because you know it's there.

And we're not throwing money at the front.

The cost on it.

Yep.

Okay.

You're up.

I'd like to point out right here.

This is uh MLK around the splash pad, and you'll notice the dirt work, and we haven't put any sod out yet.

We're getting ready to do that.

We're kind of waiting for the weather here.

But uh in the uh skid series right there is our new operator, Karina Ortega.

She went to the uh City of Fort Smith CDL school, she completed it in three days, went got her permit, and served her time.

I guess they give you a probation period of 30 days riding with another CDL person.

She went and took the practice test, scored 100 on it, and she got her CDL yesterday.

She did all this work with very little instruction.

Uh she just our experienced operator helped her do this, but she did an outstanding job.

I just want to say that I mean, she was the right person for the job.

She did she did great, and she's doing great.

Promote from within.

That's right.

I'm really proud of it out there.

Very excited for it now or lunch now for that.

So anyway, and then uh top right, you'll see the John Bell Jr.

sign that's rebuilt after it had a accident.

Someone intentionally ran over it.

Yeah, we there was no video or anything.

I filed the priest report, and it was just like, oh well, there so we rebuilt it.

There it is, it'll go back in the ground pretty soon.

So probably before we start Christmas lights, so we'll probably get it in the ground the next week or two.

Grass is dying, yeah.

Just in time for business lights.

I think that's all we have.

Unless we miss some what about did they ever make the decision about the cemeteries?

They did not, they tabled it for a future study session item, and I think it might be coming up soon.

I don't know.

I did I mean I proposed a budget based on what it would take if the same standards are required of those that we have at Oak Cemetery.

I know there's also talk of contracting, but I mean you can contract it all day long.

Are they gonna weed eat it or are they gonna inter bodies?

So if the city ultimately does take it over, I think it's gonna impact our department.

So I think it's we're gonna do what we can.

We hope we're given the resources we need.

But with all of the improvements that we've completed, I know we've put off ribbon cuttings and things like that, and all the good things that we've done.

Uh we're doing them, and we'll look a little bit at Josh too about getting getting the word out on everything all of this.

I think it's we would like to, but we are we don't have a lot of staff that we're we're doing things that to where we cannot devote the time we need to doing what should be our full-time job.

Yeah, I think it's kind of where we are.

But if Josh Rot's time, we're more than happy to pass it to him.

Sorry, I've volunteered you.

No, that's okay.

Chris did it for Chris did it first.

Yeah, I mean it'd be great.

I mean, show off what we got.

I mean really, but we're struggling.

Struggling.

You know, I just haven't heard a whole lot now on a lot of social media, but I mean, goodness.

We gotta work.

I agree with you.

I agree 100%.

And honestly, Josh and his staff, I think, do a great job.

Anytime we need something, I do send it to him.

He goes out and takes pictures for us.

His staff does a great job.

Joshua needs a want to make a motion because it cools off and people can use the parts more.

So yeah.

Alright.

Public comments.

I've got a message from the park partners.

Uh their board has approved a commitment of 250,000 dollars for May Branch Phase 2 and 100,000 for May Branch Phase 3.

Um, I saw in the the grants and contributions.

It looks like the Friends of Recreational Trails had a line in there for their contributions.

I think that that should go to uh park partners.

So we just want to have something.

It is park partners that says that is urgency.

Oh sorry, I says it.

My bad.

Yeah.

Okay, good deal.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Comments.

Well, I'm either.

There you go.

Sorry.

I was telling you that.

I was just gonna say that uh Josh took some lovely pictures at the play day.

Um August the first, and we held it at night instead of in the daytime.

We we we served over 800 hot dogs.

I would say there was probably a thousand people there.

Wouldn't you say if they were everywhere?

They were everywhere.

It was a good they were everywhere, but they were it was very, very fun.

They did all the they played on this flashblood, they played at the blow-up stuff.

We had lots and lots of people from the community came out and helped with it.

There's a lot of publicity for that, good publicity for that, and um it was it was just wonderful.

Not many cities can have a wonderful big play day like that, thanks to the Marks and Rec people that work here, and it's really fun.

We have uh we'll have some other events coming up in October.

So yay, and uh the every time I've come this this summer, the train is going crazy, and there's people crowded in the in the pub putt.

So it's been super busy all summer of those two things too.

So we're gonna upset some people.

The train driver that they have all fallen in love with.

It's a good thing, kind of.

He actually we are hiring him full-time for maintenance.

So he still wants to drive that train, so we said, you know what, the train season, it's almost over, we're gonna work with it.

Yeah, do what we can for the people.

So yeah, that's he is great.

You'll be seeing more of him all the time now.

So very happy.

He got he got lots of donations too because I was gonna ask miniature golf.

We handled that differently this year with our step.

How did how did that work out?

Very successful, and I think one of the things we wanted to was really refocus on the miniature golf, and that really was our focus.

We kept concessions very low.

We had you know, we had kids working for us, but I think they did a great job.

We set very high expectations for them.

Sometimes when you have kids, it's their first job.

You have to coach them, but I think I think it was a good move for sure, and it allows us some flexibility.

I know right now we are closed, but you know, maybe fall break we open back up, holiday express.

We're looking at that.

It's just kind of let's play it by ear, and I know Madeline's interested in it, but something we plan to discuss later is we have no fees for private parties at that.

We've had some requests, and I think it's something we're going to need to discuss.

I don't think we need to put out anybody and say, hey, $500 if you want to book it, but we do need to cover our costs.

And so just in the back of your mind, we do plan to bring that.

Have we decided to open it during the Christmas holiday?

We have not, I think our worker that we were very sad she doesn't go to college locally.

She plans to come back uh for winter break, and we hopefully we're keeping her on payroll and she'll come back and run that.

Yes, she is great.

We told her every year you come back because she did ever all of our cashiers, they did the pool and putt putt.

They were but we she was great.

She loved making those snow cones.

God love her.

200 snow cones in a day, knock yourself out.

She was she was great.

Very good.

Sad should and it looks wonderful thanks to um Pruitt packaging.

Graphic packaging and ID logistics.

That what you see over there, that was all that was pretty much them.

Our staff held.

I mean, we're mowing it, but those big improvements, that's not something the city did.

That was all private.

So ID logistics sent one of their main people from France to come help one weekend and see what was going on.

So we they they really put a lot of effort and mental effort into it as well.

Maybe that's something that when you give your report to the board, maybe call those two out to let the board of directors know what they they did, so that that's that's where they get a little recognition from that standpoint too.

Absolutely.

And I know ID logistics that um help me out obstacles they put over there.

We were happy with them.

No, they're having 3D models made.

We got pictures, we were happy with what they put out there.

But those will be coming.

It's a real little truck that you're gonna use.

I mean, I was I was happy with what they put out there.

It looks great.

Yeah, that was that was all them, not us.

So I don't want to take credit for that.

And I have to say that the splash pad at MLK is really unique.

It's really a unique one.

So I hope everybody's got a everybody go out and play at it.

It's just really fun.

It'll be busy this weekend, it's supposed to be super hot.

So that's one thing.

I'm glad you said splash pads.

I know the pool closed Labor Day weekend, but we are keeping the splash pads open through at least September, depending on what the weather does in October.

We'll probably shut them down mid-October, the end of October.

But those are a lot easier to extend the schedule than a pool.

But MLK, that that splash pad's awesome.

That was already our most utilized flash pad, so glad we were able to do something unique.

Well, it's got shade.

Yes, a lot of shade.

Governor Chris, thank you.

A lot of things you want to throw in, and I will uh I actually thought I was just busy yesterday at FedEx, and I thought that I was gonna miss uh the parks meeting.

I thought it was yesterday sent Sarah an email to uh let you guys know that I appreciate your commitment uh to this commission for what you do, you know, for the city and for the parks commission and for the staff, you guys are fabulous.

I know Sarah makes great presentation before the board, and she always always stands up and defends you know her crew.

Yeah, she just loves you guys.

So thank you guys for the work you do and preparing all this information before the board.

You know, sometimes it may come back.

Um particular board members for particular reasons, you know.

We're having to cut costs and look at you know, doing some things different, but we definitely appreciate you, and even though it might not seem that way at times, you definitely save us a lot of time and effort doing all the work foot work.

Thank you.

And bringing the tourist dollars, so yeah, sell stacks.

All right, do we have anything else?

Anyone staff commission?

That's that's we adjourned.

Thank you.