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New playground equipment at Beaver Creek Park, only a portion of which is visible from this angle, is almost ready for use after some final touches are completed, possibly this week. MELINDA J. OVERSTREET / GLASGOW NEWS 1

Richardson Stadium nears usable point; new playground at Beaver Creek almost ready

Mar 14, 2023 | 5:57 PM

BY MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
GLASGOW NEWS 1
Weather permitting – two giant words this time of year in Kentucky – a version of Richardson Stadium is could be ready by March 24 to host Glasgow High School’s home baseball games, said Eddie Furlong, director of the Glasgow Parks and Recreation Department.
Furlong, in providing a parks update to the Glasgow Common Council at its regular meeting Monday evening, said Star*Tel had begun working on the lighting at what’s left of the stadium in Gorin Park after a fire devastated the structure last summer. He said the backstop is essentially finished but they are still waiting on the padding for it, expected in the next week or two.

Mayor Henry Royse, from left, looks toward City Attorney Rich Alexander as the latter explains to members of the Glasgow Common Council the process for getting a lease agreement between Glasgow Independent Schools and the City of Glasgow approved regarding the school system’s use of Richardson Stadium in city-owned Gorin Park. MELINDA J. OVERSTREET / GLASGOW NEWS 1

A seating area and bathroom facilities will have to wait for the next phase of the project, so Furlong said portable toilets will be available for now. He said he and school officials have worked out a plan for how people need to enter the park and where they’ll need to park their vehicles around the ballfield.
He said a lease agreement contract has been prepared by the city attorney that is now under review by Glasgow Independent Schools leaders, and Superintendent Chad Muhlenkamp has requested a meeting with Furlong and Mayor Henry Royse to hash out the terms.
Later, Councilman Joe Trigg asked whether the lease would come before the council for consideration, and City Attorney Rich Alexander said approvals from the council, the GIS Board of Education and the Kentucky Department of Education would all be necessary to finalize it.
Mayor Henry Royse said Alexander and Tom Davis, the attorney for the school system have been communicating and working together through the process, “kind of making sure that all the bases are covered, so to speak.”

Eddie Furlong, director of the Glasgow Parks and Recreation Department, pauses during an update on park projects he was providing Monday to the Glasgow Common Council. MELINDA J. OVERSTREET / GLASGOW NEWS 1

Also during his update, Furlong reported, sometimes in response to specific questions, the following:
— Branstetter Carroll, a consulting and design firm hired to work on a strategic plan for American Legion Park, is expected to have a preliminary design ready to show city officials in a week or so, and Royse said of the company, “They’re very knowledgeable. They’ve done a lot of this [kind of work]. I feel like we’ve got the right people helping us make this everything we can make it.” Branstetter Carroll is the same company that performed the overall strategic plan for parks a few years ago.
— The new playground equipment at Beaver Creek Park is being installed, and he hoped to have it completed and ready to open by Wednesday. He said an announcement will be made on the Glasgow Parks and Recreation Facebook page as well as the city’s.
“Wait until you hear from us before you send people out there,” Furlong said, “because there is going to be caution tape and stuff up until we get it complete.”
— The March 3 stormy weather damaged and/or took down several trees in the parks, and three sets of bleachers were damaged, one of which might be salvageable; some poles were bent at Beaver Creek Park; some shingles came off roofs; and at some of the ballfield lighting fixtures in some of the older parks had gotten turned in the wrong direction and need adjusting.

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