EL DORADO — The Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado has been named the new manager of the El Dorado- Union County Recreation Complex.
The announcement was made during a complex board of directors meeting on Monday.
John Turbeville, co-chairman of the complex board, said the Boys and Girls Club will enter into a contract for services with the city of El Dorado to manage the facility on Champagnolle Road.
The contract is for an annual amount of $40,000, with the city and Union County kicking in $20,000 each. The contract will go into effect on May 1.
The Boys and Girls Club already has an annual contract for services with the city to provide recreational for youth since the city does not have an organized parks and recreation program.
The existing contract was cut from $25,000 to $22,500 this year due to a city budget shortfall in the general fund, from which the contract is paid.
With the contract to manage the complex, the Boys and Girls Club has the opportunity to earn bonuses from booking tournaments, complex board members said Monday.
Eighty percent of the profits would be returned to the complex, and the Boys and Girls Club would receive 20 percent, Turbeville said.
Because of the new contract, Turbeville also announced Monday that board member David Lee, who is also executive director of the Boys and Girls Club, had resigned from the complex board.
Turbeville, a member of the Boys and Girls Club board of directors, said Steve Harrell, athletic director of the club, will attend the complex board’s regular meetings.
Lee may sit in on some of the meetings, Turbeville said.
Six candidates applied for the position of manager of the complex, and the Boys and Girls Club was among three finalists.
“They were all good people. We felt like the Boys and Girls Club brought the right synergy to the table. We felt like it would be a good situation for us,” Turbeville said.
Part of the club’s responsibilities as complex manager will be to market and promote the facility to help boost revenue.
Harrell said he has contacts for adult and youth softball and baseball programs that have shown an interest “in having a South Arkansas presence.”
He said he plans to use those contacts to bring sporting activities to the complex for as many weekends as possible throughout the year.
“The majority of the weekends, the complex needs to be full. It brings more money to the complex, and we need it to help pay salaries, and it brings more money into the community with restaurants and hotel stays,” Harrell said.
He said the Boys and Girls club staff will be responsible for managing the complex and providing an onsite presence to assist during tournaments.
“If a light breaks, we’ll be there to get it fixed,” Harrell said.
Board members heard a grievance about such issues during their meeting on Monday.
Audience member Brett Hendricks discussed problems that arose during a one-day tournament he hosted at the complex on April 22.
Hendricks said complex personnel was not available to help prepare the fields for the tournaments, even after he spoke with Mark Conway, one of two groundskeepers that maintain the facility.
Hendricks said the fields had been dragged by the time he arrived Saturday morning, but other items had not been addressed.
“There was no chalk, the scoreboards hadn’t been set. (Conway) was mowing up on the hill, and he told us where the stuff was, and we could set it up,” Hendricks said.
“The rain, the mist that we got, kept the fields packed down. If it hadn’t been for that, there would have been dust everywhere, and we didn’t know how to turn the sprinklers on,” he continued.
Hendricks said he intended to give Conway the complex fee that was owed to host the tournament, but Conway left the facility while the tournament was ongoing without Hendricks’s knowledge.
Additionally, Hendricks said the concession stand closed early for the day.
“They shut down at 1:30 (p.m.), and we were out there until midnight. Everyone had a good time. They said they liked the fields, and they wanted to come back, so it’s kind of frustrating when you had mothers and kids asking where they could get drinks,” Hendricks told complex board members.
He said the tournament drew teams from central Arkansas and north Louisiana.
Turbeville said the complex was responsible for “some confusion” that ensued with the concession stand.
Turbeville later explained that a group who rented a pavilion sold food at its event on Saturday — which competed with the concession stand.
Per an agreement with the concessionaire, the complex may not allow such competition.
“Our employees rented out the pavilion and didn’t understand what the renters had in mind,” Turbeville said. “It’s a mistake the complex made and not the fault of the renters who thought it would be OK because they were not told otherwise.”
Groundskeeper Perry Franklin said he did not learn about Hendricks’s tournament until the day of the event.
“If I had known, it would have been no problem to get the field ready,” he said.
Turbeville said the tournament had been posted on the complex calendar since January.
“Well, I’m just telling you what I know,” Franklin.
Franklin pointed to another issue stemming from last weekend, telling board members that when he and Conway arrived at the complex to clean up Sunday morning, they found empty beer bottles, beer cans and beer packages in the complex-field areas, including the dugouts and concession stand.
Alcoholic beverages are prohibited on complex grounds.
“This all comes back to management. There will be a staff member on the premises, and we will regulate that,” Harrell said.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at tlyons@ eldoradonews.com.