Alderman Steven Mays is making a continuing quest to bring a public swimming pool back to Townsend Park.
A Mays-sponsored resolution to be introduced at Monday’s Pine Bluff City Council meeting calls for the panel to express its intent to include in its 2013 annual budget a $250,000 appropriation for construction of a pool there. Mays said such a facility would “fill a great need for recreational facilities for residents, particularly youth.”
The old pool closed years ago and is now filled-in. The total cost of a new pool is uncertain, but such an addition would be enhanced by developments being proposed by the Parks and Recreation Department. The parks and recreation commission’s Townsend Park committee recently determined an initial phase of the project, including construction of a pavilion and a concession/restoom/storage facilty complex, placement of new playground equipment, and making all playground equipment handicapped-accessible.
Following the council’s July 16 meeting, resident Sheila Moon bemoaned the ongoing lack of a pool in the park. Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. told Moon that a proposed community center would have an indoor aquatic facility to replace the pool. The community center is a long-range goal that would have to be financed with donations, as the 2011 voter-approved tax increase won’t generate enough monies for it along with approved earmarks.
Senior council member Irene Holcomb, who on July 27 announced she won’t be seeking re-election, said in response to Moon that she doesn’t want citizens to have to wait on proposed center for a public-access pool.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“We need to make this (a public pool) happen,” Holcomb said.
Another major item on Monday night’s agenda is an ordinance – slated for its initial reading – calling for the re-establishment of a civil service commission for the police and fire departments. Similar legislation has previously been rejected.
Other resolutions the council is to consider call for:
• Accepting a Federal Aviation Administration grant offer on a Grider Field runway rehabilitation.
• Appointing Roy T. Payne as a commissioner for Sewer Improvement District 39. If approved, Payne will be replacing the late Milton J. Tidwell, who died June 20.
• Recognizing the Interested Citizens for Voter Registration King Team for sharing top honors in a recent National Alliance of Faith and Justice nationwide spelling bee in New Orleans. The Dollarway and Pine Bluff students comprising the team represented Arkansas at the NAFJ summit.
• Providing for placement of costs in correcting certain property nuisances on tax books for collection as delinquent taxes, with an amendment removing one listed property.
Ordinances scheduled to receive second readings call for:
• Amending a current ordinance on annual sums paid by grantees of permits to operate community antenna televisions in the city.
• Amending the 2012 budget to add expenses of participation in council professional growth conferences and seminars so as to defray expenses incurred by attending council members.
A second ordinance scheduled to receive a first reading calls for amending current legislation governing the crime advisory commission, adding a new section concerning its powers and appointing Matthew Pate as an at-large commissioner.
The council meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. Monday. It will follow a 4 p.m. public safety commitee meeting and 5 p.m. gatherings of the ordinances and resolutions, and ways and means committees.