Council Member Willie McGhee is urging local residents to be on the lookout for upcoming announcements about public hearings to solicit feedback about improvements and amenities they would like to see in city parks -- particularly, a water feature/aquatic recreation facility.
With the demolition of the Mattocks Park swimming pool, the city is without an admission-free, public swimming pool or water feature, save the MAD Playscape.
The Mattocks Park pool, which opened in the early 1950s, and pool house were razed in March of 2022 after having been closed in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The facilities were also in poor condition, members of the El Dorado Parks and Playgrounds Commission said as they considered re-opening the pool for the summer of 2022.
The pool had not undergone any major renovations or repairs in the nearly seven decades that it was open, Robert Edmonds, director of public works, told inspectors from the Arkansas Department of Health during a tour of the facility in 2021.
Inspectors cited several costly upgrades and repairs, including compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, that would have been needed for the pool, pool house and pump system in order to reopen the facility.
Age, deterioration, declining attendance, public safety risks and difficulty in finding a contractor who was interested in taking on a project to repair, renovate and bring the pool up to state health codes all factored into the EPPC's decision in late 2021 to close the facility for good and to demolish it.
Now, the commission is working with Michael Rogers, of MR Designs -- an architectural and design firm that holds a professional services contract with the city of El Dorado --, to develop a project for a new aquatic facility/water feature.
In 2021, MR Designs drafted conceptual designs for a new aquatics facility and presented three options, including a:
Zero-entry, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)- accessible pool with a section for four swim lanes.
Larger pool and a smaller, kiddie pool.
Splash-pad only.
In March, Rogers reported that MR Designs had reached out to stakeholders in the community to ask for their input and provide them with information, including feasibility and estimated costs to build and operate an aquatics facility, to drum up support for the project.
Mattocks Park, which is located in Ward 3, the ward McGhee and Council Member Bishop George Calloway Jr. represent, is also the only city park with a fishing pond.
The use of the pond falls under the guidelines of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Family and Community Fishing Program.
Within the next several weeks, the EPPC will plan public hearings to allow local residents to share ideas and suggestions about the project as part of a larger, ongoing effort to upgrade city parks and make them more inviting for families with children.
During an El Dorado Water and Public Works Board meeting in April, McGhee inquired about the status of plans for a new water feature.
He directed his comments toward EPPC chairman Ken Goudy, who was in the audience during the EWPWB meeting.
McGhee said that when discussions began about the possible closure of the Mattocks Park pool, he and former Ward 3 Council Member Andre asked if a new aquatics facility would be rebuilt in Mattocks Park.
"Now, I know people say, 'Well, maybe, it's not enough people going to Mattocks Park,' but if you know, Mattocks Park probably has more population of people using that park on a yearly basis, probably than any other park in this city," McGhee said.
Parks and playgrounds commissioners have said that the location of a new facility, if one is built, may or may not be Mattocks Park and will depend on prevailing public sentiment during the hearings.
McGhee said that not only is Mattocks Park heavily-used, the park has historic value.
Historic value
The pool opened shortly after the land for Mattocks Park was donated to the city by late El Dorado resident Cornelia Mattocks.
Mattocks approached the El Dorado City Council, first in May 1952 and again in March 1953, and gifted to the city property deeds for 15-plus acres of land in the area of Detroit and Sharp streets.
With Mattocks's gift came terms specifying that the land "be developed ... as a public park and playground for members of the Negro race."
The park was to be named Mattocks Memorial Park in honor of her late husband, P.R. Mattocks, and it was to be "perpetually maintained by the City of El Dorado, its successors or assigns."
For the next several decades, residents in the surrounding neighborhood, informally called New Addition, and other neighborhoods around the city flocked to the Mattocks Park pool to swim, splash and play in a small, kiddie pool and the larger, existing pool.
At one point, bleachers were set up outside the fenced-in pool, offering a convenient seating area for casual observers, parents, guardians and neighborhood residents who watched over youngsters who were in the pool and the park.
For a number of years, the pool celebrated its opening each Memorial Day.
The smaller pool was eventually closed, the ground was filled in and the bleachers removed.
McGhee speculated on why he feels there has been hesitation to definitively say that a new water feature will be built in Mattocks Park.
Stigma
"I believe that park is in a Black neighborhood, it's not saying it's not for everyone, and I don't know how it got the stigma ... It might be because that sometimes we are vilified, Ward 3, that we have a lot of crime," he said last month.
"Yeah, we do have crime over there but we also have crime down at Walmart (Supercenter) and other places that may not get the attention. I just think that we need to look at this thing, this pool thing a little more closely," McGhee continued.
City Council Member Judy Ward asked Goudy about ongoing efforts by the EPPC to implement a master plan to improve city parks and Goudy said the commission is surveying all city parks.
McGhee agreed that the old pool was in need of serious repairs and modernization.
He also said that he had spoken to Goudy about assurances that McGhee had received that a new aquatics facility/water feature would be rebuilt in Mattocks Park.
"Who told you that?" Goudy asked.
McGhee said he had spoken with Edmonds and several other people "that actually said that."
He also said he heard from "hundreds of" local residents who expressed concern that a new aquatics facility would not be placed back into Mattocks Park.
"Well, there was never a promise to do that, Mr. McGhee," Goudy contended.
"Here we (are). I didn't say you said it, Mr. Goudy. I said I was told," McGhee shot back.
McGhee revisited the matter this week, saying Tuesday, "That's why there wasn't such an uproar from the community when that pool was torn down -- because they thought the pool was going to be built back over there."
He also said that in prior conversations with Edmonds, former Mayor Veronica Smith-Creer said that local residents had also reached out to her and expressed their desire for a new water feature/aquatics facility in Mattocks Park.
"That park and that pool is utilized more than anything," McGhee said.
He urged local residents to attend the public hearings and make sure their voices and opinions are heard.