Works Board to hear funding request

The El Dorado Works Board is expected today to hear a funding request of more than $86,600 to cover another component in an ongoing effort to improve city parks.

Since the El Dorado Parks and Playgrounds Commission last met in regular session on Aug. 23, the EWB has added to its agenda a funding proposal to upgrade the tennis courts in Mellor Park.

The meeting will be held at 5:15 p.m. today in the Council Chamber of City Hall.

While discussing the matter last week, EPPC chairman Ken Goudy told commissioners that a contractor has expressed interest in and availability to do the work within the next several weeks and that the project needs to be bid.

The work entails resurfacing and repairing cracks in all six tennis courts and converting the three courts on the south end (upper courts) of the facility into eight pickleball courts.

The three north (lower) courts will be filled, leveled and resurfaced for tennis.

The job also includes sanding, cleaning, repainting, replacing the nets and adding windscreens.

The work is estimated at $86,640, not including prep and other work -- fencing, lighting and ground leveling -- that will be performed by the Department of Public Works.

Goudy noted that the EPPC has long discussed the prioritizing the Mellor Park tennis court improvements in the next phase of a master plan to improve city parks.

"We had a hard time getting bids just to do anything over there," Goudy said.

"There's a window of opportunity here because these people can probably come in here sometime in the latter part of September and do this," he continued. "Otherwise, it may be a year out."

Work to draft the plan began in the fall of 2018 when commissioners toured several city parks to identify and assess needs.

In the ensuing months, they also solicited feedback from the public to help develop a master plan to improve city parks.

Park improvements that have been done within the past two years have mostly been funded by the El Dorado Works tax.

The one-cent city sales tax is administered by the EWB and is dedicated to economic development, municipal infrastructure and quality-of-life projects.

Over the past two years, the EWB and El Dorado City Council have approved:

• A total of $186,740 to pave the recreational trail surrounding Lions Club Municipal Golf Course ($166,000); purchase a powered lawn sweeper ($16,346) for LCMGC; and purchase and install five, park-style, charcoal BBQ grills for Neel, Mattocks, Mellor, Mosby and Old City parks ($2,417).

• A total of $89,052 for a used fairway mower ($38,380) and two utility carts ($9,262 apiece) for LCMGC; and $43,280 to build to two new basketball courts in Lions Club Park.

The park was located at the entrance of the golf course but as a part of the master parks plan and to improve safety, Lions Club Park has been shifted eastward.

• A total of $43,972 for a public restroom ($30,000) to serve the Lions Club Park basketball courts and recreational trail; two new water fountains ($12,400), one of which will be installed on the north side of the recreational trail and the other, on the south end of the trail near the basketball courts; and $1,572 for a new picnic table, which will also be placed near the basketball courts.

Construction of the restroom at Lions Club is ongoing and commissioners have said future plans call for the addition of public restrooms in other city parks, including Mellor Park.

A public restroom previously served Mellor Park but the facility was shut down several years ago due to ongoing vandalism.

The new restrooms will come with timed locks to help deter vandals.

Referring to the Mellor Park project, Commissioner Karen Hicks noted that the tennis courts are already being used in a fashion that is similar to the proposed improvement project.

"The upper courts are used for pickleball and the lower courts are used for tennis," Hicks said.

Pickleball and disc golf

Public restrooms and pickleball courts were two of the oft-repeated suggestions commissioners heard when they sought public input for park improvements.

Pickleball, which combines elements of tennis, ping-pong, badminton and Wiffle ball, has grown in popularity in El Dorado in recent years.

A few local facilities have made space to accommodate pickleball, including Mellor Park, Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado and the El Dorado Golf and Country Club.

After the EPPC voted last week to take a funding proposal to the EWB for the Mellor Park tennis courts, Hicks said, "I think this was great and much-talked about and has gotten to the point that it's now being demanded by our citizens so I'm loving that we're going to have something to put out there to them."

Another suggestion parks and playgrounds commissioners have heard is for a disc golf course.

In disc golf, players throw a plastic disc, similar to a frisbee, into metal baskets that are set up throughout an outdoor course.

The object of the game is to complete the course with the fewest possible throws.

The EPPC has discussed the idea and previously agreed to keep the item on the table for future consideration as they continue implementing the master parks plan.

The El Dorado Airport Commission recently declined a request to dedicate space at South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field for a disc golf course.

The ask included 46 acres on the south end of airport grounds and would have entailed the cutting of some trees.

After considerable discussion in July, airport commissioners unanimously voted no on the request, citing concerns that the responsibility for cleanup and maintenance may have eventually fell on an already-extended airport crew.

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