Service Contracts, Grants, and Donations on Agenda for Benton Parks Committee July 9th

The City of Benton Parks Committee will meet on Tuesday, July 9th, 2024 to discuss several items. The meeting begins at 5:00 p.m. at Benton Municipal Complex in Council Chambers. Read the agenda below, in addition to the minutes and decisions from the previous meeting.

AGENDA

Chair – Judd Hart

Vice-Chair – Steve Brown

Staff Liaison – Stephanie Jones

I. Call to Order

II. Recognition of Attendees

III. Approval of Minutes

IV. Harrison Energy Partners Service Contract

V. Donation

VI. Grant Application Update

a. Outdoor Recreation Matching Grant

b. Great Strides Trails Grant

VII. Other

VIII. Adjourn

MINUTES

Minutes of Parks Committee Meeting
Tuesday, May 14th, 2024

Those in attendance were:
Judd Hart, Chair Steve Brown
Junior Rodemeyer, Staff Liaison Jeff Hamm
Tom Farmer, Mayor Ann Spencer-Cole Frank Baptist Shane Knight Bill Donner Evelyn Reed
Jeff Morrow

The Parks Committee met on Tuesday, May 14th, 2024, in the Council Chambers and agreed to the following.

Chairman Hart moved to the approval of the April 9th, 2024, minutes. Alderman Hamm made a motion to accept the minutes. Alderwoman Reed seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Chairman Hart moved to the next item on the agenda, Recreational Trails Program Grant – Rodemeyer stated that with Council approval, we would like to proceed with applying for an 80/20 matching RTP grant through ARDOT. The intent would be to improve the lower parking lot area at the Mountain Bike Park. In this area, we will have the Ralph Bunche connector trail completed by the end of year, and the Southwest Trail will also be in this area when completed. This grant could upgrade the area by paving the surface, adding marked spaces and lighting. Alderman Baptist made a motion to approve. Alderwoman Reed seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Chairman Hart moved on to Transportation Alternatives Grant – Rodemeyer stated that this grant is also an 80/20 matching TAP grant through ARDOT. Our intent with this grant would be to construct Saline River Greenway Phase 1. Rodemeyer reported that we have grant funding to construct Saline River Greenway Phase 2 which will connect Holland Park to the Archery Range at Hooked on Fishing. We would like to apply for this grant to get funding for Phase 1 which would connect the Archery Range to Saline Crossing Trailhead. This would give us connectivity from Riverside Park to the new river bridge and the Southwest Trail. Alderman Knight asked about the maximum amount of the grant. Rodemeyer advised that each one is a maximum of $500,000. The grants were offered after the budget process so these projects would be budgeted in 2025. Alderman Knight made a motion to approve. Alderwoman Reed seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Chairman Hart moved on to Other – Chairman Hart advised that the Mountain Bike Park Grand Opening is May 24th. Rodemeyer gave the following updates on Parks:
At Ralph Bunche Park, most of the construction is done. The last phase of the project is adding the handrails and adding the turf and landscape. We will have our punch list meeting on Tuesday, May 28th.

The Mountain Bike Park Grand Opening is scheduled for Friday, May 24th, from 10am-12pm, at 1100 South Market Street. Rodemeyer stated that in the packet, there are pictures of the water bottles that will be given away. There are eight vendors confirmed, seven food trucks confirmed, KLAZ will be onsite playing music and doing a raffle giveaway. There has been a lot of interest in this park, and we are looking forward to the opening.

In Programming, the late spring/early summer registrations will be closing at the end of May.

In Aquatics, we had the health department inspect our pool and splash pad. The inspection passed so the splash pad will be open for the Kids 2 Parks event. We did a few maintenance projects which included replacing the sand in our pool filters with activated glass media filtration. Rodemeyer advised that switching over from sand to glass will increase our water filtration by 7 times the capability of sand. This product will never have to be replaced again where sand is replaced every 5-6 years. The activated glass media will also help reduce the chloramines that cause the “chlorine smell” that we had issues with last year. We are also replacing the hydrochloric acid that is used to balance the PH of our pools, with an acid right system. This is a puck system and reduces the corrosive nature of the acid in our storage room.

Special Events recently hosted the 6th annual Princess in the Park. It was at maximum capacity with 125 participants. We had 10 different Disney Princesses onsite that visited with the children. Our Kids to Parks Day is scheduled for May 18th at Tyndall Park. We will have Touch-A-Truck, food trucks, and the splash pad will be open. Rodemeyer advised that this month we have three basketball tournaments scheduled at River Center, three baseball tournaments including the Wally Hall Baseball Tournament on Memorial Day Weekend, one softball tournament, and we hosted the Harmony Grove Graduation in the River Center gymnasium. Every Saturday we have the Farmers Market. Rodemeyer stated that the Special Events team is very busy and he appreciates all that they are doing.

Rodemeyer also advised that construction on the Sunset Lake bridge will begin this week with an estimated timeline of completion in three weeks. Also, River Center basketball courts will be closed for resurfacing May 20th – 27th. Rodemeyer stated that we are switching to an oil-based solution instead of the water-based solution we have used the last few years. This will cause an odor, so we are advising patrons that are sensitive to smell. The River Center will be closed Monday, May 27th for the Memorial Day holiday.

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

For more information on local events check www.mysaline.com/events