Alright, I'm going to get started.

What we want to do with December.

Parks are right meeting.

Appreciate all you do.

And the staff or just a little appreciation we showed them.

So yeah, thank you for all they do.

So let's just jump in.

I'll have the approval minutes from the previous meeting for October.

If I had a two stick with those.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

Alright, we got a motion, then a second on that.

All favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Suppose one approved.

We got is an annual port from Wada.

Okay.

Oh man.

Right up here.

You want me to stand here, stand up there wherever you want.

Wherever you want.

I don't know if you have a point at anything on that.

Um not really.

I'll stand over here.

You can walk around if you want to.

Anyway, yeah, thank you so much for letting us come and uh talk to you guys.

Uh I met a lot of you last year, but I'm Doug Ross, executive director for West Arkansas Tennis Association.

And we have a little bit of our fan club here today.

We have our some of our board members, our tennis pro over there.

But anyway, yeah, we appreciate the partnership we have with you guys to be able to manage Creek Moore tennis courts, and it's just a pleasure, and I'm glad to be here just to give you a little bit quick recap of the year and everything else.

So next slide.

I I think most of you were here last year.

Um, and this is just a recap in case you don't know what Wada is all about.

I'm not gonna go through kind of all the word salad there, but you know, we're a nonprofit 5013 that just has a mission of developing and promoting tennis growth in western Arkansas.

And we do this, like I said, we manage the courts here and provide you know a basically a wonderful experience for anybody that comes to Creekmore courts to play tennis.

We do tournament, socials, mixers, camp slinks, and especially a lot of private uh instruction for people that want to you know prove playing tennis.

We work closely with all the schools.

There's big elementary school, third grade program that we do out here, as well as like North Side is the home uh school practice and place matches here at uh Creekmoor Park.

And then we do a lot of neat community outreach programs with the FCI youth camp and uh community connections is a great program because they work with uh wheelchair and uh adaptability uh usually kids but sometimes adults, but we also programs where they can get out and learn to kind of socialize with motor skills and just a neat chance for them to experience the game of tennis.

And then also we do several tournaments in which we partner with local charities such as Ronald McDonald House, Project Compassion, West Darks of LA, uh Mental Health Awareness Council, and Don Reynolds.

So we try and give back with a lot of our tournament funds that we raise.

So next slide.

And I'll just with the circle there, I'll start in the top left.

The UST adult leagues.

We had close to a thousand participants this year, and those are basically USDA run programs, usually in a team format of men's and women's doubles or mixed doubles different ways, but it's a very organized league, and again, just excited to have almost a thousand people participate.

To the right of that uh tournaments, we had roughly 14 local tournaments or mixed socials and had uh over 600 people participate in those, so that was uh pretty exciting.

The bottom right, uh here's where we do so much over here at Creekmore with the private instruction between just individual lessons clinics and uh a few camps and stuff.

We had almost 1,500 people that came over and you know learn get better at tennis here.

So pretty awesome there.

Um and then the junior team tennis, which is kind of our growth for the future tennis, trying to get all the youth involved from elementary school to middle school and high school.

We do different types of leagues and match playing, and this past year we had almost 350 youth participate in that.

A couple neat little call-outs here and the top yellow starburst.

Uh we did host again the two A High School tennis tournament here at Creekmoor, so that was an exciting thing that they came in and uh had their conference tournament.

And green there, we talked about all the funds we raised for charity.

We wrote checks for almost six thousand dollars back to you know community events, which just helps Portsmouth as a whole, and the charities and the people that they provide services for.

And then the after school play day, we have uh 88 kids show up in that, which were all third graders from the elementary schools that practiced for several months, then they came to Creek Moore and we set up nets and they had a little competition going and just uh so much fun provided pizza.

And this participation doesn't include the just hundreds if not thousands of just public players that just came out to the courts.

You know, this is really kind of what Wada helps.

So you can imagine that thousands and thousands if you drive by the courts in the evening sometimes, all eight courts, you know, it's deciding lives close by every time it comes by, it's like, oh, I guess I'm not playing tonight, you know, courts are full.

So um it's pretty amazing.

All right, next slide, and just a few little things, you know, this year as part of our deal, like we try and take expenses off of you, we would replace several nets, we landscaped around, you know, dumblap a little bit of landscaping and flowers, tried to make it look attractive.

Then a couple of our ladies uh bolt boards outside were post-side information, we're kind of getting dilapidated, and they took the time to kind of rebuild that and dress it up and you know, make it really nice so anybody that does walk up to the Freakmore courts can see some of the programs of what's going on.

And in case you didn't know, with the Pro Shop we have inside there, if you've ever been in there, we you know, besides kind of heated and cooled seating, restrooms, water fountain, stuff like that.

Our pro shop, we offer do a lot of racket stringing, we have a ball machine rental, uh, we sell just light drinks and snacks, and then we have a lot of tennis-related merchandise, and we sell brackets, bags, shoes, strings, grips, and especially tennis balls.

So do a lot of stuff out of there.

Next slide.

This had some fun pictures.

I didn't bring any pictures last year, but just kind of give you an idea.

There's some of the youth is we love seeing out their creekmore, learning the skills and uh happy smiley faces when they get some kind of trophy.

Um next slide.

Uh we do a lot of fun stuff.

I love you know the Halloween Emma set up a Halloween costume clinic, and they all dressed up and came out to play.

Uh, and just different one in the bottom middle.

I love it's because tennis it's a family event, and so I think mom and dad both played, but the kids were out there with them, and that's just part of what we try and grow is uh family orientation, and just some other clinics that we had going on in the smiling faces, and then here we talk about FCA.

You can see they had a two-week camp.

Huge amount of people came out here to participate.

I'm sure Sarah probably got some calls about the parking lot when everything was overrun and people parking everywhere, but again, great thing for the kids, some of the things they do, and the bottom right that was part of the after school play day.

I think that's the cook school.

But again, kids, happy smiley faces that's makes it worthwhile.

And the last slide again, to me, this is my favorite picture because just really little kids, they're learning you know, kind of social skills and motor skills, and just the smiles and happiness on their face.

Um just very exciting.

So that's kind of a simple recap.

I don't know if Sarah has any comments or any questions from you guys, but again, number one, we thank you for the partnership and everything you do with us with Freedmore Park and the tennis courts to help Wada continue to grow and build and get back to the community.

So when does the tennis project we help smart date on the we'll just talk about that now because it's more appropriate than in project updates?

So we are ready to roll.

I need to talk to them about striping for red ball if that's something they want or no, but we're pretty much ready to bid.

The only delay is waiting to see if we get that grant that we applied for.

And Chris Hoover reached out to them, and they're still the applications are still under review, and they're hoping to announce it by the end of the year.

Couple weeks.

I know, I know, and I don't I don't want to go ahead and do everything because it is oh, I don't remember how much we applied for it.

Over 750,000.

So I don't want to do anything to hinder that, but at the same time, I don't want to just get in the situation where we're waiting in May or June.

So we're kind of I have Chris keeping track on that for us.

I know they said there were a few thousand applications, but ours was the only true show me look at me.

This is something you can say, hey, your funds, grant funds, it's a true book project.

And since it's the first year for that, we think it would be a good win, but we'll see what they have to say.

And there's a coordination be available during the process of having all the work out.

Yes, yeah, yeah, because we kind of have year-round events and you know, construction clinics, whatever is year-round, and so yeah, Sarah, we're gonna try and make sure we always have some public courts to play on or do some of our programming in the intro.

Yes.

The goal is to do four at a time.

We're hoping, and I haven't talked with you all about this, but we had a meeting earlier this week, a phone call, and we think the top courts, that's more of a pretty simple, straightforward thing.

So we're gonna do the resurfacing first, and then go to the bottom courts because you never know if you're gonna get in trouble whenever you do kind of an overhaul.

So yes.

Is that just resurfacing on the top repairing the cracks and resurfacing?

The bottom doing a concrete overlay.

And then was there a component to uh an engineering component to drainage and yes?

They're working on that, and there's where we did the bleachers, there's actually gonna be a swell in between them to help with that.

So that is being addressed.

Yes, sir.

What's road strike?

That is I'm not familiar with it.

I'm not the tennis expert, so you can give a rundown.

Yeah, yeah, I've been having less.

That's why I haven't made a decision.

In simple terms for youth tennis, because the regulars drive court is really big, yeah.

They they have what you call different red ball, orange balls.

And they use a smaller court with a temporary net, kind of play sideways.

Okay, so it just takes some they call blended lines, but it's a little fainter line that allows for you to play on the court that's medical for that very simple.

There you go.

Okay, I just don't want to say yes and then mess them up for any sanction tournaments.

Yeah, it is part of a USD requirements for it, so it's all standard.

Do you all feel like you guys have all the resources you need to continue your program and continue to grow the program from the parts department?

I believe so, and I you know, like I said, we have a president Nathan is very involved with this, so I don't know if he I mean the facility to have the A courts for our programming and the Pro Shop, um, you know, things like that.

I uh I feel like we do have you know the proper infrastructure to run the programs that we need for sure.

Um yes, and yeah, I'll I'll say that uh um you know we feel extremely well supported by the city.

Um I I have a chance.

I know Doug went last year, I went this year up to uh uh a leadership development program in New York during the US Open.

Uh and um when I talked to the 22 other participants around the country who were in the classroom with me, um, we have what seems like one of the best setups from the city uh as far as support goes uh in the country.

Um you guys are awesome for us, yes.

Uh so we really do appreciate that.

Um so uh the only thing I mean, yes, we have needed more um in some areas, but the improvements that Sarah's talking about will absolutely cover that.

So yeah, Sarah is an awesome liaison to work with us.

So are you affected in any way by the new courts that you had to be in year on uh not really because as you know part of why we're actually a five county uh entity, so really anything to do with tennis knows five counties, and obviously there's times you know with we have some tournaments or something that are bigger, you know, we decide we use both band year and creep more, and then in the past have different actually use like Van Yardy Green with you know different courts.

So um we have the ProShop here, and this has always been our base operations or offices.

So you know, we obviously utilize other courts in the area, and then to have theirs just helps us more because if they do the 12 courts, then you're eight courts, you know.

That gives us 20.

We might be able to bring in some state tournaments and then the city gets you know hotel and lots and you know, everybody benefits by the more courts, and we just adjust our programming to the court availability we have.

So yeah, it just works hand in hand.

I don't know what's county, one city, but we for us we work together and make it work for everybody.

Thank you.

That was a good question.

Anything else anybody?

Well, like I said, thank you.

Oh, no, we thank you again.

Thank you very much.

You're awesome with and we appreciate everything you do for us.

All right.

Well, let's talk about the morph park minutes at all.

This is something that was brought up, and we're kind of giving a baseline for discussion uh just to kind of help give some information.

This is the recap of this year's operating season.

And if you have any questions on that again, we kept it pretty simple this year, didn't try to do too much, but really focus on the goal aspect of that.

And I think for us, I mean, I think it worked pretty well, and it was easy.

I think we had a really really good worker there as well, and that made it a lot better on us, reliable workers.

So with that, this is what we're recommending.

We're not recommending to do a birthday party fee because if you have a group of 10 kids, then get a cream more special for five dollars and fifty bucks.

So there's no point in saying, hey, we're gonna have a birthday party there.

So that's why we said don't worry about that, and really just look at the private parties.

And we the closest comparison we had was what we had at park at West End whenever we did that.

And the fees technically the park at West End was cheaper to play than golf.

But they I mean there was also that it's a Ferris Wheel and Carousel, not playing golf aspect.

So during operating hours, that would be when it's closed to the public and the public could not use the courts.

I will say the park at West End, that was a horrible experience because that's where I used to work.

The public did not understand why they could not come in despite having signs.

So my preference would be not to allow that, but it's certainly something we have done in the past if you all want to do that.

And then just a private party before or after for two hours.

We said 250 dollars.

I know that's it's a creek more special, five times fifty people is two fifty.

So I mean it's still the same thing, but I don't I don't really like having a private party that doesn't let the public use it because it's it's hard on the workers, and whenever you have high school kids, college kids, it puts them in a difficult position.

So but this is kind of what we're recommending.

What are standard operating hours?

Oh man.

It's 12 to 6 Monday through Thursday, Friday's 12 to 7, Saturday is 12 to 8, and then 1 to 5 on Sundays.

Thank you.

So they can do it after could they do it after?

Yes.

How many did requests did you have for private parts for sure?

Probably three or four, it wasn't many, but we couldn't say yes because we didn't have a fee and then commit us in the future.

And then just to make sure we comply with Arkansas Department of Health, no one's going in the concession area, they're not using it.

It just it's easier for us to make sure everything is how it should be, and we comply with all the regulations and everything.

And I even Amber and I, whenever we were doing this, I said, Well, maybe we can throw in a room.

She was like, it might not be available.

100% agrees.

So if they want to have their party and rent a room, that's great.

They can just do it separately and us not get into the mix of that.

I don't see any problem with that.

And charge charge it talking about a handful or less.

That's kind of what we think.

And I mean, opening it before or after, as long as we I think the two hours and we get the guaranteed 250 dollars, then it's easy for us instead.

Well, I want to come in and do it for 10 people.

Well, that's I can't even cover payroll for that.

Right.

So I mean, I 100% support doing it only before or after hours.

That would make us very happy.

Would you require deposits?

$50.

And it's the same $50 deposit we have everywhere except the glass pavilion.

That one's $200.

Right.

Okay.

So what did you say about you'd rather have kind of an all or nothing or not?

Like close just close it for the event.

Yes.

And and not have it.

We would prefer not to allow people to book it for a private party during standard operating hours.

Yes.

It just kind of like the train.

Can people rent the train?

Yes.

But how are you going to have all these kids want to ride the train?

You're like, sorry, it's a private party.

It's a leaders.

Well, I'm I move we uh off the rose with private party before or after normal operating hours with the 250 dollar rate and not nothing during the regular operation.

I agree with that.

I think that's the way to uh discuss.

Did you say there's a room that's available to anyone can rent these rooms?

So it would be availability if this room is available.

If the rooms are already booked, then they couldn't use a room.

And there's really no way for us to coordinate that because we book these a year out.

Oh do you book these after hours as well?

The rooms?

The rooms are anytime between 8 a.m.

and 10 p.m.

Four hour increments.

So it would be available if it was not already previously booked by a different party during the before and after hours.

What are the hours of the um golf course again?

Sorry.

It's 12 to 5.

Or 12 to 6, I'm sorry, 12 to 6 Monday through Thursday, Friday and Saturday it's 12 to 7, and then Sunday's one to five.

Okay.

And the Sunday we just mirrored the train.

I really like outside the regular hours.

Yeah.

Well, if you go to a restaurant or a bar, it's closed for private parties.

Like, well, I don't think I like that.

It is.

It's difficult.

And with it closing it at six or seven o'clock, five o'clock on Sundays.

You still have plenty of time.

I figure we'll probably get more in the morning.

Before than the after.

Okay.

And it's noon, I mean before then.

So that's what we do at the pool too.

I don't think we're going to get time, but at least it gives you time.

We can change it.

We try this as a starting point.

Is the concession open?

Yes.

When before and after hours before private party.

It would be because their private party would include a creek more special, which is golf, which they could play more than one game of golf hours.

Yes, a snack and a snowboard.

Okay.

So they would get that.

And you're worried about the millions first come first serve.

All of them are so usually you can get a big thing.

Yeah.

My thinking is whoever's having the birthday party probably would like some sort of a place to go that's private, even if if they are having a birthday party during the day during operating hours, they can't preserve the whole park themselves.

And they're gonna be with whoever else comes, but they may want a place to go.

So but if you're booked out a whole year in advance, are your fees high enough?

Do you want to raise fees for a room rental and then make some sort of package deal there?

I don't think we're ready to do that yet.

That's fair.

Only because I mean the rentals have kind of declined, and I don't think it's necessarily people are not as incentivized by low price, but there's the city has grown and there's more rental spaces.

I mean it's a good thing, it's kind of a bad thing for us, but it's a good thing for the city.

So I would rather not push that so we can maintain the revenue we're getting.

But I have 100% contemplating that.

Should always contemplate.

Yes, and even doing away with the weekday fee of it being half the cost, I kind of thought about that too.

So instead of this room instead of 25, it would be 50 during the week.

So definitely something I've been thinking about.

Well, we have a motion.

So we do have a motion uh for the private parties for the before or after regular operating hours at the two hours at the bees proposed.

Correct?

Okay.

So we can push it on the table.

Any other discussion or questions?

All in favor say aye.

Any opposed.

Project updates.

Alright, the biggest one, I really don't have many, but it's not because we're not doing anything.

Hillcrest, the playground is pretty much complete.

There's still some cleanup that needs to go around.

Around that, there's remnants of the playground, so until that dumpster and all of that is picked up by the contractor, we're keeping the orange fence up, and that's just that part of the improvements.

We still have the electrical and new water fountain.

I know that sounds like a small thing, but it is a big thing for them.

So we still have that that'll go on later this winter or early spring.

But other than that, it's unique.

It was well used the other day when I pass by really.

You know, all we can do is put the fence out.

And one of the neighbors, she called, I don't know, it was like 6 p.m.

and I got the voicemail on my email.

She goes, There's orange fence, but there are people all over it.

Do you want me to go tell them the move?

Well, the orange fence is up there for a reason.

Whether or not people obey it, we've done what we can do.

But the playground equipment is safe.

Say that.

That's what happened at Caroline.

I drove by and there were like a hundred kids, and I walked around, I said, I'm not getting involved in this.

It's fine, everything is safe.

So and I just kept on with my life.

But it's a good thing.

It's it's nice.

And I mean it's not there's no harm, there's no ill intent or anything.

So you get a lot of uh interaction.

They have a lot of input, the neighborhood did.

Down to the color.

Really?

Oh, wow.

Yes, down to the color.

And I believe down to where that bench is going to go as well.

Yes, yes, yes.

It's a good, I mean, it's a small neighborhood park, so it's a lot easier to have that kind of input.

Wasn't expecting to go all the way down to the color, but we did it, and I think they're happy.

There's one citizen who's just not sold on it, being for older and younger kids, and I go, well, you know, people have older and younger kids.

We have to try to accommodate as many as possible.

But I think it's a good improvement.

Unique small playground.

It's not as big as the other ones, but it's not meant to be.

So you didn't take up the whole park.

There's still more space and the cover.

Very nice.

Concrete picking table is still in the top.

We were not touching that.

I'm not touching that because I don't know what's going to happen.

That was just too slow.

Take up the time.

I lived here in the uh late 60s, and we had a rented house up at Hillcrest once a year.

That whole table would be filled with hot like food.

Yeah, they still have chili cook-off.

Yeah.

It goes way back.

That's awesome.

Um other ones?

The ORLP grant, sometimes we call it LWCF.

Um, Chris Hoover and I, and also a representative from Half the Engineer.

We met with, we had a really good teams meeting yesterday with the state, Arkansas Department of Parks Heritage and Tourism about this, and we are going to be able to start getting reimbursement pretty soon from phase 1A.

But that delay, apparently, whatever happened at the federal government, the one who was taking over our grant, he left.

And they have a new one.

But the state has been working with them a lot, a lot.

So we kind of, whenever the new lady reached out, I said, listen, we're kind of holding because you have to get us money before we can continue to do it.

So they are pushing that, and good progress is being made.

Hopefully, there's no other turnover.

But you never know.

So that was a really good meeting.

Maybe Ranch Greenway Phase 1B.

A couple weeks ago, we met with representatives from Fort Smith Railroad and Union Pacific about the crossing over their rail line.

And they were great.

They didn't have an issue with anything.

We still have to work with other railroads.

But that is we're coordinating with them.

Half is and designing what they will allow us to because they're really guiding that.

Creekmore Park Tennis Courts, we kind of hit on the capital improvement plan that you recommended was approved as presented.

Yes.

There's after the first of the year, we're gonna reach out and I don't remember before the meeting.

One of the board members asked about asked me about what kind of shade are you doing out there?

And I was like, Well, we're not trying to do a $500,000 shade, it's only $75,000.

I go, but we want quality, not cheap.

So we'll probably give you a couple options for that to review.

But I don't think it'll be an issue.

I like the cell shades, but I am one thing I am concerned with putting fabric down there is the vandalism.

I am nervous about that because if someone takes a knife and slashes that so I'm not sure the fabric sell shades.

I know they're cheaper, but I'm not sure they would be a sustainable option.

So we'll work through that.

I think that's Brian.

This is the Brian show today, really.

He has everything.

So I'm sure you're all familiar that we go from mowing season to holiday lights, and then we have about a month before we start taking them down.

So we try to squeeze in as much as we can in that whole month right here.

And right here's what we got going on.

We replaced all the hydraulic lines on the train this year.

We also replaced all the hydraulic motors, so it's running a lot better.

We replaced a lot of the uh I guess you'd call it weather stripping, but it's not really weather stripping, it's kind of a deadening strip around the hood, so it doesn't rattle as much, it's a lot quieter.

The wheels don't squeak as much, so it's made it a little bit more I don't know, pleasing when you go around it.

We also replaced the motor mounts.

You can see down here in the bottom left what the motor mount looked like.

This is what it's supposed to look like up here in the top right.

So we focused a lot on that train this year.

Uh we're building the new holiday light steak trailer because over the years we used to use rebar, but now that we're getting different playgrounds, we're using the playground stakes for the holiday lights.

They have a little lip on them that holds the guy wire a little bit better.

So it was a little overweight in our trailer, so we took a spare trailer we had, and we're making it here to hold some of the holiday lights.

It'll be uh the stakes, but it'll be two trailers instead of one, but hopefully we won't have any disasters like broken axles or anything.

So uh one of the things we've been doing, we've been power washing playgrounds.

You can see on the left there, it's got a little bit of mildew on it, so we went out, put some disinfectant on it, sprayed it, and a couple before and after pictures, it's quite the difference, so kind of puts parents at ease.

We've uh been scraping off old paint, getting ready for paint in the spring on our picnic pavilions.

And this is Michael Croney, he's our new uh soon-to-be new equipment operator.

He starts his CDL training at the first of the year.

He's uh learned how to grind stumps, which you can see in that big stump right there.

Is it Fort Smith Park?

That's what's left of it.

It broke a tooth on it, and he's changing out the tooth.

So he's uh he's got an extensive background in uh building maintenance, so he's he's been a valuable asset over the couple months he's been here.

I'm glad he uh he also has a Facebook following.

Yes, he's our train driver.

He left his job and actually took a pay cut because he just loved what we do and working for us.

So we're very fortunate to have him.

If you ride the train, he's in a conductor's outfit over here, and it's a it's it's battery powered, it's heated, so he's he's not at all cold out there.

So he's he's great.

I don't know where he he worked uh in Kentucky.

I'm not sure if it was a highway department, but I do believe it was a public entity like that, but I'm not sure which one's I'm just glad he ended up with us.

Yeah, he's great, great person and worker.

It was a Michael.

Yeah, he worked for a property management here in town, but he went as far as waldron and up in Missouri and stuff, and he got kind of tired of traveling to work on apartment buildings, so he uh chose to come with us, and it's it's been very beneficial for our department.

So glad to have him.

And then I think some of y'all know after we did the overlay at Carolyn, we had a couple drop-offs out there.

We fixed those, we put asphalt melons.

This is the circle drive over at uh by the fishing dock at Caroline where the trailer's sitting over there on the left.

There's another drop-off right here at the circle drive, and we've been filling that stuff in.

So these are the small things that no one thinks about, but they do drive them to drop off.

Yeah, but they so you're getting a lot more traffic out there now that the park is up front.

Yeah, and people are probably turning around there more often in the grass.

Yeah, and they'll drop that, you know.

If they're in a car, they'll drop off the right front tire, left front tire, and they'll stop us and say, Hey, we dropped off.

Oh, you don't need to do something about that.

So it's on the list, it's on the list.

So it's all it's off the list now.

They're crossing a lot off the list.

It's lovely.

How does something like that get on the list?

Me going out and looking at it, me or one of the supervisors or multiple concerns.

Yeah.

So sometimes we just don't think about it because it's some something we're just accustomed to.

But people sometimes they think they're annoying us by recording things, just record it because sometimes we don't know about it.

So it is not an annoyance whatsoever.

No, we no matter how many eyes out there, we don't see everything.

So when somebody comes up and tells me, I'll put it on a list, but then we prioritize it, and like, well, this is a safety issue or this or that.

So it gets shuffled a little bit, and then like I said, we got this month right now.

We try to do all the little things, get them out of the way, and set up bigger projects for later on.

So that's all we got.

Did I miss anything?

That's it.

All right.

Public comments.

Anybody?

Commissioner Staff, anything.

I'm gonna go first if that's okay.

The first open house for the ACME property, the community open house is next Tuesday from 4 to 6:30.

And I think there's been a lot of information and opinions out in the media, but you know, as parks commission, and even whenever this master plan got approved, I said I don't care if it's a park.

All I care about is it addresses stormwater mitigation, and it's what the citizens want.

So, you know, some people want to sell the rest.

Hey, that's okay, you're entitled to that opinion.

Some want it to be a park, that's great.

If it is, we'll make it a premier park 100%.

And some there's commercial development.

So that's all that's going to be presented, and it's getting citizen input to direct that.

The city on our end, we don't have a preconceived idea.

We just want to hear from our citizens.

There's been a lot of background work between the master planning firm and the engineering side on the stormwater mitigation, and it's revealed a lot of stuff of what is a potential land use and what can parts of that property that can be developed, however, it would be, and some that there's just nothing you can do with it.

So that's the focus of this meeting.

It's to get citizen input to help direct us further.

I just kind of so when people call you all, or you might get questions, just that's where we are.

We don't have a preconceived idea or anything.

We're just finally to the point to get as much citizen input as possible.

And there with that, it's not live yet, but after the possibly before, but after this meeting, there's it's social pinpoints going to go live for this property, and people can go in there, ask questions and updates, and kind of just give their opinion as well.

So if they're not able to attend this, there will be future opportunities to keep that engagement going until we're ready for the next phase.

And there's a separate session for us.

Yes.

So we are having different stakeholder meetings during the day.

That's just for specific people, and I'll tell you who it is.

I don't care.

There's one for military base.

Um Planning and Parks Commission, Future Fort Smith.

They're the members on the steering committee.

I sent an email yesterday and asked them because they represent people from all different industries throughout the city to invite two to three people to a just a general stakeholders, local developers.

I'm forgetting someone.

I can't remember.

Oh, the schools, like Fort Smith Public Schools, AK and UAFS.

That's who I forgot.

And then also we're working with Discover Fort Smith, Ashley Backards team is recruiting some local people that really focus on tourism to do a stakeholder group there.

But the 4 to 6 30, that is for everyone to come.

And ours is from 12 to 12 on the 16th.

Yes.

You all and the planning commission.

Are the directors meeting on this topic?

They are not, so there is a board of directors meeting.

They are not meeting about this topic on the 16th.

I can't remember the day in I think it might be the second study session in January, maybe.

Don't hold me to that.

But RDG will come and present the five the results from the whole entire master planning process to this date, and also what occurs on December 16th.

They'll present that to both the board of directors during a study session and the parks commission.

I kind of hate that the board meeting the way it fell because they are coming in person, the board meeting, they'll see it before the parks commission.

Oh, so there you go.

It's the second two second Wednesday.

Yes, for you also it would be the I don't know if it's a version.

So second there we go.

Because I know board of directors study sessions the Tuesday, and y'all are immediately following.

So there I mean, pending if anything changes, I don't know, but that is the current plan to have them come down here.

Can you talk about the master plan?

Have they roughed out what a park might look like?

But there are three, I do not have anything physical.

Okay.

Anything we've seen it during Zoom, and there are three different concepts, rough concepts, and that's really driven by the yes, it's going to stormwater mitigation number one priority.

Maybe that's all it wants needs to be.

Fine.

And then there's another one that was kind of driven by the city's core team, technical team, and the steering committee that does focus on recreation amenities, and then there's a third one that incorporates both potential land for sell, some frontage maybe, and commercial private development on that and incorporating different areas.

So there's three visuals, but there's one big one that will have the footprint of every single place in that property that is not developable for any type of structure.

So there has been a lot of coordination, and that's why it was so important to do the master planning process in conjunction with it because that has allowed the stormwater design to kind of change a little, not a lot to accommodate future development, whatever that might be.

And really, that was the purpose of the this initial master planning process.

And the first presentation of that will be at the city director study session.

It what is going to be presented is going to be at this December 16th meeting.

And then that will be reiterated during the study session with the board, but also what came of the public input meetings.

Our December 16th.

You would be December meeting.

No.

December 16th, their stakeholder meetings, but then the entire public is gonna come from 4 to 6:30.

Yes.

Yes.

Are they just gonna chat with people from 4630 and just give you a chance?

You know, I I am grateful that I'm not involved.

I am it falls under me, but it's not really a part project.

So I'm kind of in the middle here, and that's okay.

But they RDG is leading it, and I kind of like that we have been, I have been out of it because it kind of separates it can be a great part and 100%, but that's not necessarily what it's going to be.

I'm just I'm here.

But I think there's a lot of people who would like it to be a park, and I agree it could be great, but if that's ultimately not the desire of the majority of our citizens and board, that's okay too.

But we don't know until we ask.

I will tell you.

I think there's two parcels and recently.

It's Mr.

Butcher's gonna put all this information out.

He so this has already been live, this, but we don't have anything apart from this to do anything.

I guess point of asking that was to me that's a relatively small amount of money in the overall budget of the city of Fort Smith.

And so I re I really hope we don't sell it's a hundred acres, in the center of Fort Smith, it could be used for some benefit to the citizens in the future.

That's why I think this meeting, this public meeting or next Tuesday is very important that the more people that can get out, the better.

Yes, because sometimes only a small number of people will speak out, and that's sometimes oh well.

That's how all citizens feel not necessarily, and that's why I like we're doing this in-person meeting, but social pinpoint is also virtual that if people can't come, they can't come, but we can work with people to get that out to maybe they're a different organization.

I'm thinking of like the senior home senior homes, they can do that in there and help them use that.

So it'll be good.

And just to further that, and just because there's somewhat of an audience today.

It's uh the directors had good foresight into purchasing this property, and um if it's not developed today, Fort Smith is gonna be around as way longer than any of us are gonna be around, and this property will be around.

It's important that it gets developed someday for the future generations, and it may not happen today, but this is absolutely important that this is the city property.

So, David, answer your question.

But but really, what I'm what I'm hearing from you guys is what we need to hear at board meetings.

We have a few people that tend to speak for the whole community, and it's normally off Kelter.

It's it's their particular points of view, and their points of view are weighing heavily on the board members who are swayed by their talk, and some of this talk is we should stop funding parks altogether.

You know, which is ridiculous, but that's the talk.

The other talk is you know, selling this property other than the flood mitigation portion, like you just spoke to.

It was a great buy.

We got it at a great price.

No one was purchasing it.

The conversation going on right now affects us right here and right now with our budget.

What people aren't thinking about are future generations and future projects, future money, and what we're gonna look like moving forward past this year and next year.

So I really appreciate what you guys are saying.

If you have friends, family, relatives, or want to come to a board meeting and just speak up on behalf of parks, please feel free to do so.

And I'll tell you that Sarah is holding our own.

She gets darts thrown at her all the time.

And I just encourage her, but she's doing a great job, and I appreciate what you guys do.

What's the what's the organization of the city directors meeting?

You can't just take time and talk about the parks when it's not a topic of conversation or can you when can you come up and say something about parks?

Yeah, only only if it's on the agenda for for an hour to be discussed about parks or the citizens' form.

Is there one citizen forum a month?

That's it.

Our quarter, just once, once a month.

You get five minutes.

So pay attention to that school when that's when to come talk about this.

When is the one in January, please under Director Good?

The citizens form.

I don't know.

I have a I think it's the same night this will be presented because it's the first study session.

First study session.

So it would be.

We need to know what what date would that be.

Thank y'all.

December 13th.

12th of January.

Yeah.

Or good night for you.

Yeah.

January 13th.

My goodness.

And then David, to go back to your question, we paid almost 2.9 for it.

And of that, the park's budget via the general fund paid 61% of the purchase of the property.

It's nothing good.

No one was buying that.

So I knew that we'll sell it.

Get a whole bunch of money for next year's market.

Yeah.

And I will say another thing, one of the stakeholders is the developers.

And I think that's important because is anyone even interested in developing that, or is it a good fit once they see the stormwater stormwater mitigation footprint?

So that's really important.

And I mean, out of those lists of people I said we're relying on some people to recruit those, but if you have someone that meets those stakeholder groups, please let us know.

Because the more we can get of those types of connections, the better, because I mean December 16th, I think it's a really important day.

All day, even though the public's only there from 4 to 6:30 to really guide this.

And it's very important.

So I think the more people that can show up, they don't have to share your same opinion, but they have an opinion to share, and it needs shared.

You know, very well could.

I don't think pickleball would work out there because it's too close to residences.

Yeah.

And it's loud.

I would have an opinion on that.

I think that's what time does the meetings start there?

But there's in general, like what time does well the four to six thirty is the public speaking?

Yeah, yeah.

No, I mean earlier on in the day, what time does the whole thing begin?

When did the doors open?

Well, the doors aren't gonna open for anyone until four o'clock unless they're a stakeholder group.

I mean, for us.

You have a meeting at noon.

Parks and planning.

We can't get in before noon.

Oh, is the planning commission meeting at the same time?

No, parks commission and planning commission is a joint stakeholder.

Great.

The meeting together.

Yes.

It's not a meeting of the parks and planning commission.

It's just you all are specifically invited.

It's not a requirement.

So probably Friday or Monday, there will be uh I've talked to Sherry Guard, uh gov delivery saying that y'all have been invited to that, but it's not a true meeting, but just so kind of like when the board of directors say, hey, multiple maybe in attendance at Holiday Express opening night.

And it's at the river front.

Yes.

Yes.

Meaning, right?

That was a really hard question.

It's an all-day event for me.

Is it really?

Yeah, but it's it's a good thing.

Again, I think it's a really important day for the future.

Just everyone has an opinion, they need to share it.

First day of the rest of our lives.

All right.

I think I'm done now.

You think you're done?

I think so.

Any other commissioning staff comments?

Yes.

Okay.

Um, we had a wonderful pancakes with the Grant Saturday.

We're guesstimating 800 pancakes were made, maybe more.

Oh no, there were more than 800 pancakes made.

Other than a thousand.

There were more than that made.

Because everyone got two.

Right, everybody got two.

So we try it out there and have to thank Nancy and Sam and Dave for helping plan and run all the games.

It was very fun.

We had the some we had nine wonderful uh Northside students who participated and helped us now.

It was wonderful.

We had recent some democratic women in there helping.

So we anyway.

It was it was a wonderful event, all free to the public.

We didn't get anything but good publicity from it.

It was nobody called and complain.

So and we also didn't get to mention that we haven't had a meeting since October when we had our wonderful uh Halloween train expression.

I think we call it Halloween.

And it was and it was way more than we thought we were gonna have.

Way more.

We gave out 500 hot dogs, right?

500 hot dogs, like that.

Yeah, before it got dark.

620 of those things were gone.

I was about to say, I know it was less than 30 minutes.

It was they were gone.

We had North I helpers then also, and uh that playground right there, you couldn't stir them with a stick.

You could stir them with a stick, it was so it was wow.

So all made possible by volunteers.

Thank you to the commission and Madeline and the schools and schools, and so on that train though, you know, we have budget cuts, and we're probably not gonna be able to do some stuff this year.

So I'm very sad.

So if you have somebody that might want to sponsor something that we might do, like kids in the kitchen this summer, let us know.

So we still can do pop-up things, but we're probably not gonna be able to do the father-daughter dance.

It's expensive.

So anyway, I just want to make sure everyone knows budget restrictions are gonna cut into fun things that we could do for the park, too.

Roughly what some of those things cost if you want to try to find some response.

Father daughter is what?

Yeah, about five grand.

Five thousand.

Yeah, because you've got to rent the facility rental and the DJ, and I the board has not approved the budget yet.

That's on the agenda for next Tuesday, or the agenda, my goodness.

I think it's time to take a nap.

Um, so we had to after the initial budget was presented, we had to cut an additional ten percent of that, and we kind of rearrange some things, and I wasn't I will present that as soon as it's adopted because some things changed, but we did have to we cut what as much as we could, and then some without impacting services to the degree, and kind of like what Madeline mentioned.

We did cut father dog, that was a proposed cut, father-daughter dancing kids in the kitchen, and the reason those two events one father-daughter is the only event we have where you actually have to pay, and it is a big cost.

Don't get me wrong, there's a big attendance, but you do have to pay, so there's that, and kids in the kitchen, we do limit participation, so we felt those two recreation events were the best two to cut versus the ones that everyone can come to, is why that was my thought process.

But we'll see.

Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't finished.

I have one other thing.

Sorry.

So we had to rip rebid the Mazard median contract and the outdoor restrooms.

We were going to have to rebid, we call it the South Medians Lawns and Landscape.

Our maintenance staff are gonna take that in-house, but we did get a new bid.

We got the most bids we've ever received on both contracts.

Usually it's one or two, and we have to beg them.

But we saved about 20 grand on the contract for Mazard Media, and then for the outdoor restrooms, that's been awarded to it's clean slate services.

They're a new company, and what they they employ people with a difficult background, so it's kind of what DPI staffing did to where I don't know, maybe they've been through drug rehab or something, and we've gone through this, and certain people will not be allowed to work in the park, so we have gone through that, and that's kind of what they're doing, so we're pretty excited about that, and they'll start January 1st.

It was 10 grand more than the previous contract, but I think it'll be a good thing.

And we met with um the owner of that company, Brian Patrick, and I and said, Hey, this is the expectations.

Are you sure you can do that?

And she is with her staff, and we were comfortable, and we're we're pretty excited about it.

So see how that goes.

I'm finished now.

I think say adjourned.

I just want to pick it back on uh the event all day express lighting, another successful event.

Yeah, we didn't have to do it.

It it went off uh as far as we know without a hitch and things seem to be okay.

So good job, guys.

Appreciate y'all.

Please hear the train whistle.

Yeah, they're crew has worked so hard on that train because after Halloween Express, I said, I don't care what you do, you fix that train, fix it right.

And they have worked really hard to do a complete overhaul, so a lot of credit to them.

So is that the new one?

The electric one.

That is the diesel that's running.

Okay.

So what kind of what's the sort of the electric one?

I think that the it does not run as well as the diesel.

I think it was a good idea, but then the batteries I guess needed replaced, and we were told to get these batteries that are in it, and it's just not working, that great.

So it is not running because we don't trust it to run and not break down at the moment.

Okay.

And the diesel, I guess I'll call it old faithful.

That thing will run.

So if we wanted to put the money towards that one, because we know without a doubt it'll run.

The electric, it's gonna take some creativity to where I don't even know if we want it to still be electric at this point.

So we still have the steam it is on display at the trolley museum, but yes, it is still ours.

But nobody uh part of the problem was finding a steam train operator, right?

It was and finding someone to replace it in the money to do it.

It was gonna be a lot, and I know some people said they'd raise money, and that never happened, so that's why it got us, we got room back in our train shed and it went to the trolley museum.

So it's still there if anyone wants to raise money.

Are you gonna convert the electric motor?

I think that is certainly an option.

I do like to coal.

You know, I think it's new train.

It lasted a good year-ish.

Oh god.

Yeah and a half.

Yeah, something like that.

Uh you know.

Depends if you talk about the batteries of the whole train.

Sometimes you have to let people you have to take directives from people who aren't the most qualified.

Leave it at that.

So deal with this and not make it short because you know, like that.

There's no cloth, so I've been just I don't know what's happening.

So the deal with the steam train was that uh the cars were so obsolete that they were only had to be handcrafted to nine the whole thing from the scratch.

And that's and that and the expense of that was gonna be astronomical, and that's how we ended up having the electric trade.

As I recall.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Anything else?

That's for me to turn.

Thank you all.