So we'll get started with our main parks and break meeting.

Appreciate everybody making it.

First thing we have is our March uh meeting minutes to approve.

Somebody's making a motion.

Oh, did someone?

No, okay.

Let's move.

I moved to approve the minutes from the RP.

Alright.

So motion is a second.

All in favor say aye.

I was gonna say one thing.

I know Sam emailed everyone, but Sean emailed me and she had a family emergency and had to go out of state.

So that's why she's in our here.

We have more, right?

Okay.

Alright, well, let's just jump right into it.

Project updates.

There we go.

Woodlawn park improvements phase two.

Last time we were here, we showed you some really wet pictures.

We hadn't had any of the turf laid.

Unfortunately, these were taken today, so it's not as pretty as it normally is because we have a lot of leaves and limbs and everything in there, but it's getting cleaned out.

That's what happens when you have random stores.

There's always cleanup, but nothing dangerous.

And then I did pick this picture specifically because you can see the seat wall that we integrated there with some shade.

So if toddlers are on that area and the bigger kids are on the splash pad, mommy can still, mommy daddy grandparent can still see them both.

But kids are already on that, enjoying it.

We have actually a gentleman from Hillcrest took his little green kids out there all the way out there, and he really really enjoyed it.

So good project all around improvements to that park are complete.

So to date, we've done splash pad, restroom, new basketball court to address some drainage, drainage issues, brand new equipment for older kids and infants.

So pretty much a complete park improvement.

Down the road, we'll probably address like the small sidewalk that's around the uh park, but that's off into the future and not a big priority right now.

Good job.

Very good.

And if you want to know, it is possible for an adult to play in that uncomfortably, uncomfortably.

I wanted to see what was in it, okay.

Yeah, well, there's there's a fireman's cave.

There's how do you what all you need to put out a fire?

There's all sorts of stuff, farmers market stuff in there.

Wow, it's really great.

Should have taken pictures while I was in there, but I didn't.

Y'all are welcome to go get your own pictures because I'm not going back.

We're been cutting.

I think we do need to have one.

Oh, I didn't get a picture.

I've only showed y'all in a rendering, but I don't have this.

The fire station side is over there.

It has mud, the dog that was at fire station six.

That's the dog, the fire station dog that passed away.

Two Ds.

Remember that whenever people ask, it's intentional.

So got to little memorial for him.

So very happy about that.

Small details, but good details.

Next up, I'm sure you saw it when you drove in, Creek Moore Park tennis courts.

Uh you know, we have a big hole right now, but it was kind of expected.

What we didn't expect is I called it a brick graveyard.

This is all brick until Brian informed me that it was a former brick cistern.

Out there that service those homes that were in that corner.

Oh wow.

So was it Vern said it, but then some gentleman, he's a former architect plays tennis, and he actually told the contractor that's exactly what it was, and he knew all about it.

So everything is on schedule.

However, we will likely, so we were not aware of this, and neither was Wada, that the county was going to do their improvements right now.

So what we're doing is luckily it's the same contractor on both.

We're looking at one of us doing a start-stop in that to make sure four courts that are public courts are available at all times.

We're working that out, but I know Wada's been working with Village Harbour.

They've been great.

They let them use their courts for their annual after school program.

So it the project might take longer, but it's for a reason to keep play happening.

So a lot of unexpected coordination, but we have it all worked out hopefully.

So that sister finding that made it harder.

It just wasn't there.

A lot of dirt they could have used for other things for other projects that they're doing, not us, is cannot be used.

So it went all the way to the landfill.

Usually they like to keep the fill dirt and reuse it because that's all that would have happened.

So is that why they're digging so deep?

There were two slabs.

Technically, there were three.

Did I tell you that?

There was concrete, concrete, asphalt.

So the first layer was asphalt.

Concrete, concrete, asphalt.

And then they knew that they were gonna have to excavate a lot of dirt.

We just didn't know the initial all the layers that were on there, and then they found some under drains.

No one really knows what they were for.

We assume they got clogged up way back in the day, and that's why we had a lot of drainage issues on these courts.

So we're going back in there with some that will actually function.

It's been an adventure, and I feel like everything in this park, we uncovered something, so at the end of this, we're gonna have a great updated survey of everything.

Yes, you know, it's an adventure, everyone, but we're working through it.

The contractors been great, wada's been great to work with.

So next up, I know you'll enjoy this.

River front skate and bike park shade.

We met Brian and I met on site with um a gentleman.

Is it Rod or Ron?

Always called Saint Raw.

It's Rodney.

Rod with Rolon Skate shop.

He met us out there with some of the other his kids and stuff that uh skate because we know where we think makes sense to put the shade structures, but we're not the users, so we're really not the best to make the decision.

We met with them, and all they want, and we're able to make it happen in the budget between us and park partners, so it's just these are okay.

One question, David had it.

This is intentionally, we pick this to allow rain to fall through so it does not become a shelter for unhoused individuals.

And we kind of talking with Rod, he goes, you know, it's fine because whenever it's wet, we're not gonna be out there skating anymore, so we don't really need it to protect us from rain, just serve shade.

So we worked with him on this.

He sent this to everyone in the skate park community, they're all good with putting them here over this bench and over this bench, and we are gonna do something over this picnic table.

I don't know what that looks like right now, but that's in the works, but everything is in budget right now.

So this I think this is this is under 60 grand for two of those installation included, so really really good price.

You said you took that to the council and they said yes, we say directly because it was under 75.

We didn't have to.

Now, what happens whenever I add that third one?

I don't know what the price will be.

If it's over 75, it'll have to go for approval, which shouldn't be an issue, I don't think, because honestly, park partners are paying for most of it.

But if it's under 75, then we can do that without going through the process.

Who knows?

Just off the top of that.

You said you had a plan for that pad.

We do not.

We do not have a plan.

The skate community has to plan for it.

Oh, sorry, I'm recovering from sickness this weekend.

The help me out here.

Help me.

The pipes, the half pipe, thank you.

That's an MLK that's been sitting in the grass.

We're gonna move it there.

Brian measured it, and we're gonna get with them.

They have offered to help disassemble it, and we'll haul it, load on trailer, and haul it.

So that we're coordinating with them.

We don't have a timeline because when you have people volunteering, you're on their time frame, and I am okay with that.

Okay, so yes, sorry.

What's a half pipe?

The you thing.

Like they're doing the Olympics.

Yeah.

I would have thought the shelters would have been more on the west.

They do not want it over there.

Because most of the skaters congregate over here in this area, and because this is really for the toddlers that pump track and little dirt playground.

And there is a picnic table.

It's kind of over here.

That shelter that's a pavilion.

It's probably more like down there.

So there already is shade over there.

And I think kind of with what we had allocated and what Park Partners has, we can look at doing some additional shade.

I just don't know how much that's going to knock down from the west over there.

Yeah.

It's perfectly winded.

Yep.

We have the our rep local polygon rep on site.

We'd like to know with the skate community though.

I mean, it's their park if that's where they want to try it.

Yes.

It'll get them during the daytime, but in the day.

Yeah.

Glad that people make time to talk with us and help us make decisions before.

Next up, Tillis Park parking lot.

The design, I got that.

Monday, everything's ready to roll.

We're advertising for bids this Monday.

We'll open bids June 11th.

This red area, that's going to be a deep patch because that's our worst area, especially right there.

And the rest will just be standard mill and overlay, unless we run into uh-oh.

And with our luck, I'm not I'm not going to say that's not going to happen.

But we'll have that.

And then this yellow.

This is Sarah's clip art, by the way.

So do not judge me.

This is not an engineer drawing.

But this yellow, this is that, it's that really bad piece of sidewalk that's going to kill that really nice tree.

So we're gonna reroute it to hopefully save that tree.

And that's yes, that's part of it's a nice tree.

So that'll be ready to roll.

And then Riley Farm Park Trail Improvements.

This is phase one.

This is a we have to do this to this park.

It's non-negotiable.

And this red part, this is over, it's I'm gonna say right at 300 feet, linear feet of pedestrian bridges.

There's a bridge there and there.

When they did this development, it's always been an issue, but now it's worse.

All of it drains there.

So it's kind of it's not cost effective or a smart decision to continue with this and spend probably an extra 300 grand for pedestrian bridges, 300 feet, unless you want to go with wood, that we're gonna be right back in the same position we are now, replacing it all the time.

So we're going to eliminate this section, and of course, there will still be if people want to walk that way, they're perfectly welcome to.

They're just not gonna have a bridge or a paved path.

But we're gonna keep this green, it's already existing.

We're just gonna keep it on there going around the pond.

This is not an accurate drawing.

I was hoping I got the final plans before this meeting, but I didn't, and then this is a 40-foot, 20-foot, 20-foot, and 40-foot pedestrian bridge.

We're bidding it.

We tried to do the HDPE, like at Caroline Cross Park, and the price was just it was astronomical.

So both the engineer and we were kind of brainstorming.

Well, what about playground ramps to use bridges?

And they do that.

So we did get a price for just for to do a cost estimate for the engineer to do that, and then one of the options is concrete culverts.

Those things aren't going anywhere, so hopefully the price will be in favor of the concrete culverts than the playground ramps.

Both will serve the same purpose, but I think the culverts make a bit more sense in the long run.

Did you say you were gonna use those square boxed rooms that just bottom up against each other as they walk with?

Yeah, pre-cast.

I mean, exactly like the tunnel, only nowhere near as big.

Yeah, I think that's a good thing.

Yeah, with of course the handrails.

So that is also bidding Sunday.

I know sometimes you don't like to bid projects at the same time.

However, completely different contractors are gonna bid because for no bigger than the Tillis Park parking lot job is someone like Steve Beam up here, Crawford, they're not going to bid on that.

So we were comfortable bidding them at the same time.

And then we will be sending after this goes to the board and everything's approved.

We will be sending a letter to the, I think it's 300 foot property owners saying, hey, this is phase one.

We have to get this done as this progresses, and we know for sure what amount of the allocation in RCIP is left over, then similar to what we did with Hillcrest, we'll come have the neighborhood meetings and figure out what's next with the money we have.

It's just we didn't want to go that route because we knew we had to do this, and sometimes what you need to do isn't always what is wanted.

So that's why we made that decision in this instance.

Creekmore Park pool improvements.

We are trying to figure out how many days it will be before someone tells us they got fiberglass from the grates of the pool.

Guarantee you it's going to happen probably after the first week, but all the HDPE grates are in our staff.

They did that, did a great job.

Another issue so we did some drains in the diving well.

It used to be an outdoor pool, so the sun just evaporated all the water, you didn't have an issue.

Those got installed last week, and then because you have to have it for 80 or 80A requirements, there's a lift to put individuals who cannot use the diving board or a ladder into the diving well.

I you know, I don't think it makes much sense, but you have to, but 10 well, yes, 10 foot.

There is nothing like that, chair and do what.

We had that discussion.

Amber was the one who called the federal government.

I don't know what to tell you, but we had to have it, and there it is.

Is there one outside too?

No, because we have a zero entry ramp.

And then the way it's pizza.

What about it?

That's fine, but you have to have it.

It was a discussion, and even our local uh Arkansas Department of Health people they said we it's not us, it's them.

I get it, but luckily with this, the way the one that we let Burton select it, they're the only local people who both do purchase and install.

This one, whenever the pool is not open to the public during the summer, we can actually lift it from the deck so it doesn't interfere with whenever they want to do short course swim meets in there.

So it's you had to, it doesn't make sense, but it was a requirement, so we did it.

It does work if anybody wanted to know, you know.

And then I just wanted to throw in a picture.

We're getting the pool ready.

Our guys, but really Ian's doing a great job.

We do have some cleanup that we're gonna do, and then our staff are gonna do a full uh clean of the entire bathhouse, get that ready to roll.

We're working on logistics.

We had our lifeguard orientation this past Monday.

We have, oh dear, 25 lifeguards and cashiers, and let me tell you, it's always a struggle with some full-time people and seasonal people to get all their information.

Those kids, we only had two that didn't bring it, and they sent the pictures the next day, so they're all ready to roll.

They are very, very there's a lot of new ones, but they are very well, they're respectful, they're here on time.

We said beginning at 3 30, by golly, 3 20.

They're lined up.

So really excited about them coming.

We I think we have a good group, and if you can't tell, there actually is water in the waiting pool, that's how clear it is.

That's pretty good.

It is.

Looks like it's halfway payment, so it looks like.

You know what?

I don't.

I am going to say this.

It's a beach.

Yes.

But did you notice?

Well, no.

But if you're there, the roof of this little umbrella is painted like a beach ball.

And all the depth markers, you know, sometimes the maintenance people want to get creative.

And they did.

They painted the depth markers like beach balls and put one foot and two foot.

So is it a perfect beach ball?

Absolutely not.

But is it?

Is it there and did it?

Will it pass inspection?

Yes.

Awesome.

You know?

I think it's always good.

And I should say this mess over here.

This, these are actually the light poles from those lower courts.

They'll get uh painted black and everything, but that's the contractor storage area.

May Branch Greenway Phase 1B that we've been trying to do for a few years now.

This I just gave an overview.

This is the it keeps going, it does some weird stuff.

I didn't try to clip art it for you.

But something we've been obviously there's railroads involved, and we Union Pacific, they've been great to work with.

They have they accepted one of our designs.

A and M.

It was not a nice email saying no, we're not going to do anything.

Our attorneys try to talk with them, and it's not specific to this trail.

It's not specific to this.

It's other things too.

And they're just not willing to budge.

So we had to say, okay, are we willing to just kill this project because the railroad's not going to cooperate?

Or are we going to try something else?

And we threw out two different options.

One was to actually come up here and cross these railroads further up because the city actually owns parcels up there.

Union Pacific said no because that's creating a new crossing, which we knew, and we would have to they would have to figure out where to close another.

So, and we did send that to AM via our attorney to theirs.

Didn't receive anything back.

And then we said, okay, Pea Street along it here, it's already wider than it has to be.

Can we create a shared use path?

And Union Pacific said no because you would have to have the cross arms and everything, and you just can't do it there.

So we didn't even send that to AM because I mean if UP shut it down, they would have to.

So all of that we said in talking to Matt Meaver, director of public works, over the roads and everything, and with half, we said the absolute only thing we can do to not kill the project is propose to R Dot.

Can we do Sherrows?

It's not ideal at all.

We understand that.

Everyone understands it, but yesterday I got an email probably right before four o'clock.

Is agreeable to allowing us to do share of this is probably not going to all be sheriffs, but this is the this is where we're looking at.

Again, we understand it's not an ideal situation, it's not the safest route, but it's what we have that we can make this critical connection.

And one of our dots requirements is hey, can the city propose to us some different options that in the future we could look at to create a safer connection, something with those railroads, and we will send them what we pitched, the widening of Pea Street, and then we did do, I had half to a due diligence to look at a tunnel or a bridge option, and the pri we don't have that kind of money right now.

However, there is a grant that I can't think of the name that we can go after, and I said, yes, it makes sense, but I don't want to delay this project anymore because it's up at the federal level, and that's a two-year process to get an agreement.

So I said, no, if R Dot is good with this, we're going with Sherrows.

So if all goes well with everything, the ORLP grant coming from LWCF, I did receive the notice of award for the initial 712,000 earlier this week.

We do have the 1.3 guaranteed from the state.

They don't want to send that agreement to the city until the National Park Service approves their additional contributions.

So I'm trying, yes, I know.

So Chris Hoover, I don't know if y'all have met him.

Our grants and public relations manager.

We are going to, you know, I'm just gonna sign another form like I did the first time to have Walmack's office investigate because it worked out really well for us last time.

Got some additional money.

So we're going that route, but I'm gonna try to get the state to agree like we did with phase 1A to let us go ahead and bid it out to start it.

And if they will do that, and I make sure that we do have enough money sitting in the bank available, then we should be able to bid this out later this year.

Later this year, yesterday I called half as soon as I got that email.

I said, Hey Cheryls, let's go.

So with the Cheros, fine for bikes.

What about humans walking?

It's gonna be a walk at your own risk, but I will say people walk in the street all the time.

They do.

Nancy.

I've ridden my bike down there several times over the years, just checking it out, yeah.

It'll be crazy.

Anyway, years, and I was driving by there the other day, and um I thought, why don't we just finish this with Sherrows?

And um, because really it's not that heavily traveled, and we've got that hot crossing on midland.

And once you get across the Midland, I mean, you just have people who walk and ride bikes are accustomed to watching out for their own safety.

No one wants to get hit by a car or train or anything else, so um, I love the Cheryl idea.

I got to Peace Street, and you know, it's kind of diagonally across from that little intersection thing, you know, on the bike trail, off river front drive, go on the drive.

There will be a hawk signal there, okay.

One of those flashing ones or hawk, yep, whatever.

Then I would say it's done.

That's what we just have to, you know, there is I rode bikes around Washington, DC, all over the trails there.

You know, I'm not bragging, it's just that.

And there are sections of those trails where you have to literally find your way through somebody's neighborhood to find where the rest of the trail goes, or you have to cross a you know, a four-lane highway, you know, a Mount Bruno Boulevard.

And it doesn't matter which direction you go, you're gonna end up having to make a life or death decision.

Am I gonna do this or not?

You know, like true, you know, be careful and do that driving every day.

You know, just you, you know, it's just part of it.

There's a you know, ideally, you never have to cross a busy road, but hey, yeah, you know, and what you just said is exactly one of our dots.

You know, it's 25 miles per hour on that road, it's not heavily traveled.

I mean, I'm just glad that we finally decided you know what, forget this.

We're just gonna ask R Dot.

Last week I sent the email and I said if we can't get sheriffs, the project's dead, and this is this isn't going anywhere, we're done.

And they talked about it and everything was good, but for I guess to CYA, just to show that we gave our due diligence and that it is not on the city, it is 100%, it's AM Railroad.

Union Pacific already gave the approval, they had their engineering and everything done for us.

But here we are.

I like that approach just because the shareholes helped get it done and buttoned up, and once that's all done and everybody's happy that the grant's been spent like it's supposed to be and everything, then we come back and add something to help fix it.

Well, continue the other side.

Jump into that.

You just told them, I'm gonna make you happy in a minute.

I've been working on this since 1998.

One thing we said, and now it'll be on the recording, but we said, you know, when people say, Oh, here's a trail, why'd you go?

Why didn't you extend it?

And here it picks up again.

You know, there might be some people who have those connections with the railroad.

So we're hoping those those conversations happen.

Sure.

But I mean, we had to give our due diligence.

Yep.

Well, if you're looking at that area, it's not so heavily populated.

No.

And it's further back it is where we wanted to get to here.

And the whole point is, I guess, I didn't realize.

Well, obviously, I don't drive that everywhere.

But AN's track, it's a hand switch.

So it's not like yes.

Listen, there were discussions, okay?

So it's it's a hand switch, and I don't know, but we are moving forward.

So that's that's over and done with.

So we can tell people.

That, yes.

Now, let me say something else.

We do have an R dot tap grant for this.

They have already reviewed and commented on 60% plans, and now that we have shareos, it's not gonna take long to figure this out, but there is a 60, 90, 100, then they have to approve your project manual, your advertisement for bids.

So they do delay it, but when they're giving you a million dollars, and R dot.

Yes, we can wait that.

Now, if it was still waiting since 2019 for this ORLP grant, I'm done.

But good things are happening.

This got approved right before four o'clock yesterday.

Awesome.

So thanks from the legal.

I know.

Next up, May Branch Greenway phase two.

So this entire line just combined my Christmas, red and green is phase two.

What is green is what we is owned by the railroad currently.

We would have to acquire that and still on the railroad.

However, I'm sure you guys remember the whole point of May Branch phase one and two is to go behind utilities, a big consent decree project.

Well, utilities is ahead of us.

It was going to be years down the road, and it was going to be us fighting the railroad.

But they recently approved an acquisition fee to work with the railroad and acquire this entire green line from them.

Oh, so and they're paying for it.

So we will, the city will own that by the time we are ready for construction.

Great.

Now again, again, with the passage of the bonds for consent decree work, it kind of expedited their schedule because this portion of work it was 10 plus years out, it wasn't even on their CIP, but now they're able to do it, things happen quick.

And we met with utilities.

We said, you know, this is already this is that asphalt area behind uh railroad trail.

Yes, thank you.

And we met with utilities and we said, you know, y'all are putting back an eight-foot asphalt trail.

We're just gonna come back and rip it up.

So, can we talk about us paying for anything that is the price difference?

100% parks, and make it the 10-foot wide greenway that we know it's going to be in the future.

We had that discussion with our engineer and the utilities engineer and utility staff.

They're on board.

This is contingent on, and I listed it up there.

The contractor, this contract's already been awarded for utilities, is agreeable to it.

They've performed work for the city in the past.

I don't foresee them having an issue with it.

It will not cause any delay for the consent decree project, and we'll pay 100% of the cost, and that includes the engineering, but we already have a contract with half that we're paying for that anyway.

Which contract?

It's phase two.

I want to say McKee or Kjax.

I don't remember.

It's one of them.

But they are, yes, ma'am.

Go ahead and finish your sentence.

Oh, and so this is about two-tenths of a mile.

Yeah.

So it will be good.

Would we like to do the entire thing all the way to park?

Yes, but we're gonna have to have a bridge and do that, and it would delay, and I'm not willing to be the one that gets thrown up there and saying you cause consent decree and off to where it wouldn't.

Not doing that.

So and this again, you know, we have to get off the trail and ride through the neighborhood and around the corner and pick the trail up again.

It's just another one of those things that you know pedestrians can struggle through that that gap.

But well, you know, it's not saying we should never like address it, but I'm just saying for the time being.

So, but I might I have a question that um I understand about this part.

Uh the first part that goes behind uh whatever that grocery store used to be on North O 10 bucks, the 10 box.

Are they is the utilities gonna pave that also?

No, because it it is not currently paved, and it is not going back paved, okay.

They're only doing what was there, is it?

Now they're not doing that, we're paying for it.

Yeah, I mean, and I will say because different monies are involved.

We worked with them, we have how it will be separated out, finances on board.

I sent a summary to administration, and they're good with it, bond council's good with it, so everything will be kosher.

It doesn't have to be 100% paid any more than it has to be 100% off the road.

So, and I will say another thing I'm excited about.

This Grand Avenue, this is the what is it?

I always call it BMX, but it's not West Arkham.

Yes, the Yamaha dealer, utilities gets to bite this bullet too.

So they paved railroad-owned property to extend their parking lot, and we were going to have to have that fight of this isn't your property, you're you can't use it as a parking lot because we were gonna eventually own it.

So we worked with engineering, met with them and said, Hey, this is a troubled area.

They're gonna work with planning to help communicate that.

Sorry, I didn't tell you that park, but I mean it will it impact their business, yes.

But they did something that wasn't on property they own, and now it's gonna get dug up for the consent decree project, and it will not go back as a parking lot.

No, and there's still room, and in fairness to them, they knew that was not their property, and they did not get a permit.

So they they are aware, they just weren't aware it was gonna happen like that.

Well, maybe when people start walking it, they'll just throw in utilities under the bus.

No, that's it.

And if we're some random reason, utilities gets there, and we can get our design to just go ahead and do that concrete in front of that.

We will.

I wouldn't hold my breath, but that is a possibility, but I'm just I'm glad it's them doing it.

It's for consent decree work and not a truck.

You know when they're planning to do that.

They are currently the contract has been awarded.

Okay, but I I don't want to misspeak, but I do know they're they don't want to start, they want to start at pretty much the Omaha, the grand crossing, because it's a huge bore for them, but they can't do that until they actually own the property from the railroad.

But I will say, speaking on behalf of his name's Chad, I sent him the railroad contact information, and two weeks later it was on the agenda.

I kudos to him.

So that's in process.

This is all good news, isn't it?

Yeah, that's a lot, but it's it's good.

It happened really, really quick.

That was my email to Sam.

I go, I can't give it to you because things happen like crazy.

All those places that you mentioned, signage would be helpful.

Like regular people who've never been on it before, so you keep on going, you'll hit the, you know, whatever, kind of especially here.

What are we're talking about that.

That is one something we talked about yesterday.

We're gonna get with Matt Public Works, and see can we do some kind of increased signage or something that makes sense to where if you're walking or riding and you did not see blinking lights or the sign, that's on you.

So we are going that that is something we are going to work through.

Yeah.

Then last additional update, Cisterna Park pump house.

That started May May 4th.

That's funny.

So electric is, yeah.

Electric is off down there.

They're starting that work.

So that's on schedule.

And then the Methodist Village Trail Connector, the board approved to for us to accept that grant.

Everything that you guys made a motion to recommend was approved.

We already have the agreement back from R Dot.

Like I said, they're great to work with.

They move fast for TAP credits.

I said for tap grants.

So we have our engineering agreement.

They've already done the surveying.

They went out two weeks ago to start that, and we'll start the design.

You know, same thing, R dot.

Now that this is brand new, we didn't get to use 60% May branch because we already designed it, they'll have to do 30, 60, 90, 100% review.

So you got uh we the city got defended on Facebook about the fountain that's just turning park.

Because during the steel was around, I have some fountain.

They don't want it on.

Very quickly, some people gave honest and correct answers.

It's electrical problems, people get shot trying to repair, it's underway, it's been dead, it's got to be fixed.

The bikers don't want it on because it gets their seat wet.

They, I mean, Dennis Snowheat he did it because we said, Hey, do you want it on?

He's like, No, no, no, no, no, no.

Because one year it was on, and they they don't want it on for their event, and you know what?

You're bringing that many people in this city and generating that much cell size.

You don't want that fountain on, we'll turn it off.

It was only on the water disperses and stuff.

After that, we never wanted to.

And so there's a lot of people around it.

Somebody's gonna get away on it.

So there were, yeah, this the city's response got defended, and I was proud of them.

At least two or three people gave the right answer.

So why does RDO have to get involved with that?

Because the TAP grant.

Oh, it's a grant, it's a pass through from federal government to R Dot.

So they just have to make sure and follow everything.

And I know Methodist Village is going to grant us the public trail easement.

They were ready to do it, and our dot said, hey, wait, let's get your agreement in place, and then you can do that because we have to follow the can't even think about it.

Think what it is, but to make sure that we did gave our due diligence and we're not saying, hey, we're just gonna take your land.

So there is an option in Methodist Village is on board to waive the requirement for an appraisal and just deed it to us.

So that I'm not concerned about that in the least.

All you got.

So basically, this time of year, I think you'll all know that mowing takes priority just about over everything.

Had to do some storm cleanup over the weekend, had a big tree down at Tillis.

A little bit of damage on a pavilion there that we're looking into.

We're gonna have to fix the middle roof on that.

Health department's coming to inspect some pools and splash pads starting tomorrow, so we'll be ready to go for that.

We're already pretty much set up.

We're just waiting on them to give us the okay, and over here on the left, this is a tree at Fort Smith Park.

I don't want that.

Okay, okay.

Here we go.

This is about a 65-foot tree that we removed at Fort Smith Park.

It got to the point where we were in discussion with a couple other departments, they wanted to use it as training, but it got to the point where it's starting to shed and uh we had to get it down, so we had to go rent a lift.

We don't have anything tall enough, neither did the street department, so we were in this lift, got to use it as training for new equipment operators, had to rope it all down.

Everything worked out really good, except for this beehive that was in the middle of that tree right there.

Above land, surprise, there's more.

Yeah, I got I got a good story.

Besides uh our employees swearing that they were killer bees, which they were just really upset about.

So we took this part of the log, cut it best we could, and we moved it, put it out in the woods.

Uh I've had a contact with Xavier Price at uh UFIS over here.

He uh he's a beekeeper, so once he gave him a couple days to calm down, he came to set a beehive out there, he moved the queen over, everybody moved, he took the colony, got them out of there, they didn't sting anybody.

We saved the bees.

Yay, so good part of the story.

So uh this right here is at the river front, which you can all tell.

We used our forestry multure which attaches to the skid steer, kind of cleaned up the river bank there for the upcoming concerts and stuff like that.

It's kind of tricky with a little bit of riprap in there, but it does look a lot better.

We can't do that all the way down the trail because there's no riprap and some of those the Johnson grasses holding the bank in, so we can't remove it.

So I think Corps of Engineers might have something to say if we did.

But anyway, this looks really good right here, so it looks really nice down there.

I I finally got to ride my bike because I just finished covering from the surgery thing, and I recorded probably no fewer than 14 different birds down there.

This is just sitting in the trees singing their heads off, and some of them were migrating birds, because they only they breed up here in the US and then go back south.

Right.

Well, so it's a very cool experience.

Awesome.

Yeah, and it looked very tidy.

Yeah, we all had a good uh we had a good uh good amount of seasonal supply this year, so we're our staffs we're we're well staffed right now, so we're being able to keep up with everything.

Grass mowing kind of came on really strong at first and now it's kind of mellowing out a little bit.

So when did they come to work?

You forgot that.

Yeah, well, we are fully staffed on the books.

That's what it's hard to say, right?

But all positions are filled, but you'll be getting the school kids.

Yes, yeah, so you got it there.

Sorry, I stole your thunder.

You guys are wonderful.

Right.

Uh uh the cistern cistern at the pool.

I know there's a brown field program that for pollutants.

I'm sure you couldn't get onto that for something like that, but I know they're pushing brownfield uh federal government, you know, contract.

I'm sure you want more work.

But you know, it's it's free money, basically.

I just wanted to mention that just to be crazy.

Um, yeah, where is that second um phase go from Rogers Avenue to?

Yeah, it goes from the so this is Martin Luther King Jr.

Park.

Okay, yeah.

So it'll go down O Street and follow the old railroad.

Yeah, all the way Grand Avenue, the other section.

Oh, so past Rogers will go that that'll be phase three.

Yeah, it'll go Rogers to Acme and hopefully beyond.

We're kind of working on oh wow, that okay.

Say thank you.

Okay, exciting.

So we thought of it uh putting a hawk at Greenwood and Rogers.

Oh, Greenwood and Rogers.

You've got to really be careful crossing.

I guess that's a I mean, aside from the traffic signal is uh I mean I don't know that we can do an additional hawk in the vicinity of the traffic signal.

Or maybe the lights flashing when you uh crosswalk lights on because I mean there might be some things there might be some things we can do with the signal itself and the crosswalk indicators and such like that.

Maybe make an improvement.

You feel pretty exposed, and it's a quick crossing too.

Okay, sure.

Well, I mean, you know the guy.

We know the guys that adjust the adjust those programs, so I think they're going through uh a timing study or such down Rogers.

Um, starting relatively soon, so maybe we can ask them to make some consideration for the cross-pedestrian traffic since we're gonna be funneling people there.

So make some sense.

That makes sense to use what's already there and just adjust that and then try to add a different uh component.

I didn't want to mention thank you.

Zabia had lost a hive, and so you gave him a free one.

Yeah.

Awesome.

We've got another one that he's gonna be working on too, but uh, it's a little tough to get to.

I tried to get near it with a weed eater, and they were not happy about it, so we're waiting for our dock to come down through there with their Batwing tractor bullet.

We'll kind of spray around it a little bit, and then he'll be able to get to it.

So we got one more we're gonna try to save it.

Leave it on the R Doc guys, I'll get stuck on the stuff.

You heard it here first.

We save these.

That should be important too.

We'll time out.

Not only do we save bees, we know people who know the Boy Scouts, and they're gonna give us make us some brand new back houses.

But wait, there's more.

Dwayne, director of solid waste, he wants some out at the landfill.

So they're also gonna do that.

We're getting with them and I already talked about that.

Oh yeah, yeah.

I talked to him this morning, and uh to qualify for the Eagle Scouts project.

They have to have he thinks it's fifty plus at least 50.

So he was like, Is that too many?

I said, I could put them in Fort Smith Park, I can put it in Tillis.

Landfill wants three of them, so we're there's gonna be a lot of bad houses, especially along the trail on the river up there at Carolina.

So, yeah, all the ones here, I think a lot of good things happened from last week's or the week before.

Whichever one that was, okay, we're starting.

We're getting free bat houses, okay?

That's the good thing.

Um flip the switch Saturday.

Made sure that there's beautiful coverage down at the at the park downtown or the parking lot that does belong to us, and it's gonna be uh generating a gob of uh energy down there, and it's covering up the the farmers, and they're very happy.

It's it's it's really easy to get to go shopping there now, and so it's really making it really beautiful if they they turn the switch on, but the farmers have already been using the electricity out there, it's in different poles as you go along, and it's gonna be it's lighted at night with colored lights that was part of the oh is it?

Yeah, so part of the monies that that we got for that, and I'm not sure, but it'll be paid for itself soon by using the electricity.

So is that a good enough for anyway?

We had a red opening Saturday where they flipped the switch with the mayor, and then I'd say that.

I don't go down there a lot, but the times I have I mean it's always been a real community type of feeling there, but even the way they can orient now, and it just feels better.

That's not this.

It is pretty nice.

Yeah, it has a really nice, it's a little permanent and feel too.

Yeah, we have to cover it.

Yeah, and the lights that the colored lights specifically mentioned, those were those aren't really originally part of the project, but they were added to, and I've got some donation from Main Street Fort Smith and from uh Hannah Will and First Met First National Bank and Ganon Cooper uh helped helped uh offset the cost of that.

So, CBID also does something.

It really looks wonderful, and there's about there's a total full of vendors.

There's no offerings, that's how many people signed up down there, and uh, so it and the vendors keep it very nice and clean down there, and we have really nice trash cans and everything.

Now electricity remains and not all that.

So everybody come down on Saturdays and starting on Wednesday nights too, so and next week I think so.

Let me piggyback on you because I forgot something.

Sorry, I didn't until you said it.

So this is the farmers market parking lot, pre-solar canopies.

I'm sure most of you know Judge Spears.

He had an idea, he presented it to the CBID.

I wasn't there for that, but then it came to me to do a stagecoach statue along garrison.

And you know, Phil White kind of took that lead.

A lot of things happened really quick and a lot of donations.

So the proposed location is right here.

These, these is Garrison, these parking spots to make it, and so he does want to do some landscaping around it, some nice landscaping.

We offered artificial turf, but it wasn't favorable.

But it's okay.

Phil asked if the city could help tear up this asphalt, and I asked Jeff if it's something we could do and maybe public works.

Met out there, public works is going to do it for I guess us and Phil, but also they're gonna do to help people from just wandering on or a car somehow going up on there, they're actually gonna do a curve and do a sidewalk right here.

So I mean cars can still go over sidewalks, but the barrier is there to the best of that we can do.

So if the coach is an outline, basically, right here.

This I mean it was crazy.

They had this idea.

Phil called Midwest and he went back to his office and he says, I have it right here.

So it was crazy.

Phil was so excited, so this is what it will look like.

Don't worry about that.

So in the the grounds plantings around here, um, I don't know, I didn't quite catch you.

We were gonna do it or some other entity was gonna do it, but is it gonna be like native grass like blue stone?

I think to be determined by the donors.

Uh I'm just gonna, yeah.

We'll wait and see.

But honestly, when Phil does something and those involved do something, they do it right.

And Phil's really good about calling us for the most part and saying, hey, this is what I have planned.

So I'm not yes.

I wonder about lighting.

You have to have ground lighting on the behind it to see that they'd like to put the particularly at night, but uh one by it.

There's light on the backside, sort of sort of showing the shadow of the torch garrison, right?

There, yes, and he might have an additional donation that could go for that.

I just haven't talked to the water.

Is there already uh uh landscaping to uh water?

Is there any water?

It's irrigation.

Sometimes projects happen and the departments that are affected are not consulted, and when things happen, a significant amount of damage occurs, so no, there is not irrigation at that parking lot.

There did used to be it's gonna be pretty pricey.

That's well, we plan native plant native plants and then irrigation before rocks, something that doesn't need watering, we have plenty of rocks, and they can be cute.

Short answer, no.

I have a question about uh to us, bathrooms.

I got an email from working blue saying you're expressing interest in a corporate mood, would you talk?

I have already no, let me tell you, it's because I told him it's Caleb Larson who sent it to you.

I told him we are not ready to proceed anymore.

I had an hour and a half little zoom session with him.

I have the price in everything.

Where were you thinking about using uh the farmer's market parking lot?

But I think now with the statue, and I I think that's a great idea.

We'd have to revisit that, and something we need to consider.

It's just kind of the schedule.

Yes, yes.

It'll be, we'll figure something out.

Yeah, the Parker Cross Street doesn't have any bathrooms.

The like the apartment I'm not putting a bathroom in the back.

I'm just saying, so there's no whole area doesn't have bathrooms.

Individuals use the stage as a restroom.

We had the cleanup across the street, right?

Yeah, right across the street from the toilet.

I don't think it's going to be an issue.

Well that's true.

But it's not, it's a it's only unlocked for farmers market, though.

It's only a lot for Fox Market.

So they came to visit the statue, it's still the lock.

Ah, yeah.

What about Tillis?

You have to close the bathrooms in Tillis.

We did.

Someone decided to take something and break that meter box, which also holds all the breakers.

We're not going to relive the conversation I had with OG and E, who would refuse to come out there and kill the power in a timely manner.

Do you know what I had the conversation and they were out there within 20 minutes?

Yeah.

It was some of my finer work.

But I mean, kids, all they had to do is touch it and they get electrocuted.

I said such.

But we shut them down because there's also.

Probably not the most professional work.

There's little literal crap on the inside, too.

Absolutely.

Okay, I mean it's bad, and I get, yeah, maybe the fix does take a day, maybe.

But these guys, they have so much other stuff, and it's just way low on the priority list.

Do you want that bathroom to be open that maybe 10 people are gonna use a day?

Or do you want the splash pads and the pool to open?

Do you want your parks mode?

Do you want broken equipment repair?

And we just have to prioritize that.

That's where we are.

But I do know Patrick ordered the part.

I don't know if it's here.

It's in.

He just texted me right before the meeting started and we got it in today and he put it in.

Now we're waiting on uh OGD to come accept the meter.

There you go.

Do I need to call them?

You might need to, I don't know.

That's what it moves.

You're looked out really well for it.

Before I left here, got the Tillis.

They were there and had it off.

I know.

You know, I got the point across, but it was if I'm having to call, that means other people have already called and it's to me.

And it's a DEF CON 1 situation.

That was my exact words.

They got out there.

Safety first.

Did you uh wrestling bathrooms?

That we do contract that outdoor cleaning and they I don't know if they are going to do it, period, but last weekend they closed all the that's a lot of gas.

They're doing on their own accord.

Shut the restrooms down at 11 p.m.

and meant to have them been back at 6 a.m.

But their worker, I guess, was a no-paul, no show, whatever, and Patrick, honestly, Patrick's been on top of them.

I'm really proud of him.

He said, if you're going to do that, be first the next time it's not open at 6 a.m., we're going to have a very big issue.

So if they want to close them down at night, so be it.

That's on them.

Not part of their contract.

We're not paying extra for it.

Yeah.

Yep.

Six is six.

Or six.

Yeah.

So the uh with all this vandalism of the bathrooms, this is an ongoing thing for years.

Um, and then a quick aside is the tillers bathroom one of those fancy new like micro things that we've installed.

Uh okay.

And I will say, I know people say put cameras up there, cameras don't solve that issue.

We have cameras at John Bell Jr.

and someone kicked the entire stall down.

And do we have people that went into the bathroom on camera?

Yeah, but how do we prove that they did it?

Cameras don't solve it, and I mean I told someone last week, there is no reason citizens cannot have a nice public facility to use it apart.

But a small handful of people make it to where they cannot, and I really hate that.

It's a constant battle.

I wish there was a solution, but this is not unique to Fort Smith.

It is everywhere.

Well, you got those signs up with numbers that call it.

Have you gotten one this year?

People can call.

They do.

And I know there was a Facebook post.

I guess some lady knew who did it at Tillis, but she didn't want to call the police or something.

Oh, speaking of, there's our engineer.

I'm surprised you're on.

I know.

Commissioner said call.

It's about the Sherrows, guys.

It's about the Sharos.

Yeah.

So it and we do have the automatic locks at John Bell Junior Park.

We learned this last week and it's getting fixed this week, that if the power cuts, it doesn't function.

But it shows on IT server that it does function.

So that I mean that's something they'll have to work out, and I think that's something we can look at in the future.

However, the only reason we have those and cameras at John Bell Jr.

Park is because IT is using a hot spot to have network out there.

So and that's it's a big inconvenience for them, and I'm I'm on board with it because I hate that for them that it's really not connected much.

But that would have to occur at every single outdoor restroom as well.

Are your new bathrooms easier to take care of?

I think so.

Martin Luther King are a lot easier to paint.

Floors are nice, you go in.

Power washer, they're all designed the same, so the plumbing and all that's the same, whereas lowest bidder contractor may be a little bit differently inside, so maintenance wise it is a little bit better in the plumbing chase anyway.

So all the uh CTX bathrooms, the heaters and all that.

Well, some of them had heaters, but it's not all of them, but it's all the same on the inside, so yeah.

We don't always have it to match when somebody gets ugly and uh writes up on the wall.

So sometimes you'll see an unsightly square there until we get the paint next and get her eyes.

Yeah, because you can fix it.

Patrick.

Patrick.

He is a very I think a lot of our staff are very creative problem solvers.

As I learned, one of the did you know that one of the islets on those gates?

I asked why it was rusted and they found it at the in the shop on the floor and used it.

We save every penny in this department.

And I said, can we spray paint it black?

Yeah, there you go.

Get the wire we're seeing.

It's a little out there.

Thanks to the parks department for cooperating with the uh key force is beautiful, and plant a tree for all the day.

We dug the hole and got it in, it's gotten behind the building.

Nice shoe model.

So you got a proclamation too.

I do.

It's a little chair.

It's in the chair in there.

And then I just took these pictures today because I think it's crazy to see how much we have done.

You know, we I know there's a lot of discussions that parks aren't important, and we need to be spending some money other places, but at the end of the day, the citizens did vote on this to invest in Farks, and I think we have more than proven that we are using the money that we've been given responsibility to use in a good way.

Yes, so you can just see that.

And this isn't the only park, it's just where I was today.

This is our parks are great.

They do, and you know, it starts with the citizens and getting allowing us to use those money.

Without them, this it wouldn't happen.

I think it's important to keep that reminder out there, you know, whether it's just in social media, I mean, we have how we would do it.

I mean, feature a park every month.

And just go look at the look at the new things and features and what we have.

Yeah.

Well, I will say, Marissa, she has been doing really good this year with doing that, and Josh has gotten her train because we uh combined our Facebook pages.

We no longer have, it's still up there to look at, and Marissa's been learning that, and I'm really proud of her, and she's doing a great job getting that out there.

I try to set the goal for a weekly posting, but sometimes that's not achievable because we are a combined page.

But I I really do think she's doing a great job.

So that is one of our goals for this year, and she's she's doing excellent.

Pictures of people.

You got that on recording to play for her.

All right.

Well, good discussion.

Uh, good comments, too.

Any more commissioning staff comments?

Anyway, all right.

Thank you gu