This meeting of the Fort Smith Parks Commission covered several capital improvement projects, funding requests, and operational updates. Key topics included the Creekmore Park tennis court improvements, Sterna Park pump house repairs, Woodlawn Park final improvements, and a connector trail for Methodist Village Senior Living. The commission recommended funding for the trail project and reviewed timelines for summer 2026 completion of multiple park upgrades.
Maybe the two or meeting. Last day to be in a park, right? Yes. Well, let's uh let's take care of the first thing or uh January minutes. We'll interface a motion to approve if no changes. All favor say aye. I'm sure we're something. Okay. I wanted to still go ahead and have a meeting, even though we technically don't have items of business because we have a lot that's going to the board next week, significant projects. So I think it's good for you all to know before it goes in the board packet. So the first one is the Creekmore Park tennis court improvements. And you can't see it on this because it wouldn't fit, but those red lines that you see on each of the sides, that is four foot spectator fencing, and that is something water requested because right now, if you have a lawn chair over there, all you see is that bar hitting the fence. So they recommended that, they asked for it, and it actually lowers the cost because four foot fence is cheaper than eight foot fence. Ten foot, sorry. How tall is it? If y'all wanted to know, I can show you how tall eight feet is after the meeting. Actually, I can I I can pull up a video. Thank you for that. And then we did, and Sam, you always ask about the drainage, and we have this the part that's on the right of your screen that does address the drainage as much as we can without digging up that entire ditch that drains from the corner. And I got you. I told you I remember things. So and then um it does have LED lighting all new. We're keeping the poles, painting them black, and having LED fixtures, and those are compliant with all USTA standards, so very happy. And there is something about this bid, it's never happened to one of my projects. So the low bidder was out of northwest Arkansas, but the city has an ordinance that grants a five percent local vendor preference. So whenever we calculated that the actual low qualified bidder became Steve Beam, and it's about it's just under sixty thousand dollar price difference. But to be completely transparent, I was actually gonna have a conversation with Jeff because the low bidder, none of their experience is with sports facilities, so I was a little hesitant, and so is the engineer to just award it based on price. But it worked out that we were able to use that 5% local vendor preference. But other than that, the plan is to keep four courts open at all time. Our only hesitation with that is the surfacing company whenever they come in, or they don't want to mobilize, get out, and then remobilize to do the surfacing. We are going to try to work that out, but Wada has been great. They understand we might have to shut the courts down, but everything will be rearranged. They can utilize courts at other facilities on a temporary basis. So I think they'll be ecstatic that the project is happening. Yes, and they have been great to work with, got their input throughout the entire project. They are happy with this. I'm not a tennis player, so we rely heavily on their expertise and knowing what is best for that and their service to our citizens. So and then I guess I missed that. The part that is the dark gray that's highlighted in yellow, those are we're gonna install spectator bleachers there. It's the same as what we did at Woodlawn Park. People can still bring their lawn chairs, but we have that available as well. The lights have timers on. So we had that question of if they wanted right now their push button as if they wanted to do timers or anything, and they said they like the setup as is. So we same setup and everything. It works for them, it works for me because maybe if the timer's off, then all they have to do, they wouldn't be able to just press a button but this way and press a button if they want to play. And we're gonna LED is a big step up because the other ones take like 30 minutes to warm up before they come on. So if you forget to turn them on before the sun goes down, you're playing in the dark for a half hour. Yes. That's a lot. They are nice lights.