Glasgow council gets report on parks/rec activities, projects’ progress

BY MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
GLASGOW NEWS 1
Footers were poured last week for all of the new bathroom facilities being constructed in three of the city’s parks – Gorin, Twyman and Weldon, with work to continue this week on those projects, said Eddie Furlong, director of the Glasgow Parks and Recreation Department, who was called upon during Monday’s meeting of the Glasgow Common Council to provide an overall update of the happenings under his purview.
He had started with various types of programming the department offers, such as open-gym pickleball, “which is a huge program for us.” He said it’s relatively new but it’s been growing a lot.
The gym is open for pickleball 7:30 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays.
Bitty-ball has 11 teams in two divisions, he said, and the adult volleyball league has five teams that play on Thursday evenings and the cornhole has eight teams that play on Mondays.
Youth soccer sign-ups begin at the then of this month.
“My team of 11, which includes myself, we’re just doing everything we can to maintain the facilities that we have to maintain the programs that we have,” Furlong said.
At that point, he circled around to the facilities projects, like the bathrooms, which he had told Glasgow News 1 last week have a completion-date target of around the first of April, depending on weather.
New security cameras are installed and working in Weldon and Beaver Creek parks, though a few more are going to be added between the two once some different hardware necessary for their installation arrives, Furlong said.
“They have been running for about a week and a half or so, and they do great for us so far,” he said, “so I’m really, really happy that we have those.”
Beaver Creek Park is going to be especially busy this spring, as he expects delivery of new playground equipment that cost more than $180,000 later this week or early next week and will be installed shortly thereafter. The walking trail is going to made 4 feet wider all the way around, Furlong said, and a 40×32-foot shelter is going to be installed sometime in the spring in addition to a set of bathrooms there as well.
At Richardson Stadium in Gorin Park, work is beginning this week to repair the existing backstop and install some new fencing with it. A meeting is scheduled for Friday with potential bidders interested in working on getting new lighting installed, and their bids will be opened next Friday.
“Just so everybody out there knows,” Furlong said, “the timeline that we have in place right now should fit with what the schools have [for their scheduled] baseball games.”
The ballpark should be operational by March 18, he said as he knocked on wood and narrated his action.
Furlong said that since the last meeting of the Planning and Development Committee, also known as the Parks and Recreation Committee of the council, he and the mayor have worked together to get an agreement signed with Brandstetter Carroll to design a plan for American Legion Park, including an aquatic facility.
“We’re not renovating the old pool. It’s way past its lifetime, so we’re looking at a new design and layout for American Legion Park,” he said.
Councilwoman Chasity Lowery, who chairs the Parks and Recreation Committee, asked Furlong to describe a little more about what Brandstetter Carroll will provide.
He said they will help with, for example the layout and whether certain things would fit better in particular areas within the park.
“We will have some public meetings as well, and they will also take our information from the master plan that we had done and combine all that and help us design the park,” Furlong said.
Councilman Max Marion asked about the price for that design work, and Furlong advised him it’s $20,000.
Mayor Henry Royse said its a very, very busy time for them and he’s glad to see it all moving forward.
“I’m more excited these cameras from the standpoint of security and from the standpoint of dealing, head on, with the vandalism that we’ve had,” he said. “The resolution on these cameras …, you can count the wrinkles on some of these people’s faces.”
Furlong added that the city pool is still operational will be open this summer, but his hope is that they can have a plan in place and be ready to have shovels in the ground pretty quickly after it closes for the season.