The El Dorado Parks and Playgrounds Commission continued discussions this week about posting signs in city parks to establish rules and help ensure that visitors, particularly those with children, have an enjoyable experience.
During a regular meeting June 28, Commissioner Alexis Alexander reminded the group that they previously talked about installing signs listing rules about loud music, smoking, tobacco, parking and illicit activities (drugs and weapons).
The discussion stemmed from a report last month from some EPPC members and Lions Club Municipal Golf Course managers Danny Carelock and Terri McCaskell about issues with people driving motorized vehicles, including cars and ATVs, on the new basketball courts in Lions Club Park and the 2.25-mile recreational trail that surrounds LCMGC.
Carelock and McCaskell said they had also received complaints from golfers and people who use the trail about loud, "vulgar" music near the basketball courts, adding that the music is audible on the golf course and in the pro shop.
EPPC chairman Ken Goudy said June 28 that the El Dorado Police Department has been called a few times in response to the complaints.
"They're bringing big speakers and putting them out there. Some of (the music) is really bad, nasty stuff and we can't tolerate that," Goudy said.
He also referred to a break-in last year in the LCMGC golf-cart barn, which is just east of the new basketball courts, saying that surveillance/security cameras will be installed in the area.
He said the cameras could also help with the noise issue at the courts, which opened a couple of months ago just south of the LCMGC pro shop.
Two new basketball courts were built as part of an overall master plan by the EPPC to improve city parks.
The plan includes multiple components that are being funded by the El Dorado Works tax, a one-cent, city sales tax initiative that is dedicated to economic development, municipal infrastructure and quality-of-life projects.
Fifteen percent of the tax is allocated to community development projects and of that, 6% is set aside for parks, including sports, recreational and outdoor venues or projects.
Last year, the El Dorado Works Board, who administers the tax, and the El Dorado City Council signed off on funding requests that were presented by the EPPC for several improvement projects.
New basketball courts for Lions Club Park, a pocket park that included a basketball court and previously sat at the entrance of the golf course, were included in the funding packages.
For safety reasons, the park was shifted eastward, where the new courts were built and a new picnic table added.
On June 28, Commissioner Alexis Alexander noted that visitors' rules are posted at the El Dorado-Union County Recreation Complex -- which is just outside city limits on Champagnolle Road and is also undergoing a major expansion and improvement with El Dorado Works funds.
"We don't have much in city parks," Alexander said, referring to signs in public parks inside El Dorado city limits.
She said some parks have signs denoting closing hours and at least one sign in a city park cites rules pertaining to issues such as the ones the EPPC is looking to address.
Commissioner and El Dorado City Council Member Andre Rucks said he has had to run ATV riders off grassy areas in Mattocks Park and Alexander said similar issues are occurring in McKinney Park and the recreational trail at LCMGC.
Commissioner Greg Harrison, who also chairs the El Dorado-Union County Recreation Complex Commission, pointed to similar issues at the complex.
"We've got no parking signs where we don't want people to park, including the playground area," Harrison said. "Once we get the signs up (in parks within city limits), they'll have the rules and designated parking areas."
Added Alexander, "We need to put up signs like at the complex and we don't need to piecemeal it. We need one consistent sign with all the same rules in all of the parks."
There was some question about how the signs would be worded, particularly in regard to music in city parks.
Alexander suggested that the group home in on the issues with loud music
"I'm a proponent of the First Amendment, so, no, loud music. Vulgar is subjective. My definition of vulgar may be different than what a 16-year-old may think is vulgar," she said.
City ordinances
Alexander and Harrison noted that the city has an ordinance that prohibits "loud, disturbing and unnecessary noises" and another that sets a daily curfew for juveniles.
The "noise ordinance" specifically prohibits "the playing of any radio, phonograph or musical instrument; the use of mechanical loudspeakers on trucks or other moving or standing vehicles ... in such a manner or with such volume as to annoy or disturb the quiet ..."
Per the juvenile curfew ordinance, minors under 18 may not remain on city streets between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and between midnight and 5 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
The term "street" is expanded in the ordinance to include shopping centers, parking lots, parks, playgrounds, public buildings, common areas of public housing developments and similar areas that are open for use by the public.
Some exemptions apply when the minor is:
• Accompanied by a parent or an adult who is at least 21 and is not the parent, but who is authorized by a parent to accompany the minor for a designated period of time, for a designated purpose and within a specified area.
• Exercising First Amendment rights that are protected by the U.S. Constitution, such as the free exercise of religion or freedom of speech.
Written communication, detailing when, where and in what manner the juvenile will be on city streets at night must first be filed with the El Dorado Police Department.
• Returning home from within one hour after the end of school, city-sponsored, religious -- or other voluntary association -- activities. Sponsors of such events must give prior notice to the EPD.
• Engaging in bonafide employment or traveling directly to and from the place of employment.
• In a motor vehicle for the purpose of interstate travel, proceeding through, beginning or ending in El Dorado.
Parents may be fined up to $1,000 for each offense after the first warning is issued to a juvenile who violates the ordinance.
A second violation for the juvenile constitutes a first offense for the parent, according to the ordinance.
If a juvenile violates the ordinance more than three times, he or she will be reported to the Union County Juvenile Probation Office.
The matter will also be referred to the Union County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, the Arkansas Department of Human Services and/or any other appropriate authorities deemed necessary.