THE ISSUE: The Merrill Center, which serves hundreds of kids each week, is in need of repairs.
THE IMPACT: The center’s repairs will likely cost several hundred thousand dollars, but city officials, such as Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington, say they are needed to help boost the facility’s impact on kids. City leaders say the services provided by the center are vital to local youth. The head of the city’s Parks and Recreation department submitted requests to renovate the Merrill Community Center’s dilapidated kitchen and bathrooms Tuesday, adding that the aging facility will eventually need a new roof at a cost of at least $100,000.
Department employees also said replacements were urgently needed for two outdated vans if the city is to transport kids for upcoming summer programs. Parks and Recreation Director April Layher said the Merrill Center serves 75-100 kids during a typical school day, and 250-300 per day in the summer. Renovating the aging facility has been a topic of discussion for several years. A divided City Council rejected a proposal in 2013 to spend $450,000 of city funds on the facility. Opponents, such as Alderwoman Thelma Walker and former Alderman Glen Brown Sr., said then that the city should spend money on a new multi-purpose center and aquatic center rather than renovate an old structure.
A new roof built on top of the old flat roof several years ago has begun to peel off due to wind damage, but the old roof is holding for now. A new roof will cost at least $100,000, Layher said. She mentioned the need to replace the roof in March 2016 as well. Layher requested $50,000 to renovate the Merrill Center kitchen and nearly $10,000 to install new stalls, sinks and toilets in the boys’ bathroom. She also requested $500 for new toilets in the girls’ bathroom. The kitchen is currently unusable to prepare food, she said, and is instead used as a storage area. The funding request would pay for new flooring, cabinets, countertops, a work island, a refrigerator, stove, freezer and a $25,000 vent hood.
Alderman Bruce Lockett asked if improvements to the kitchen could be paid for by sales of concessions. Layher said the department previously had a contract with a vendor for concessions at city parks that brought in $4,000 annually, but it is now trying to do concessions on its own. If the kitchen is renovated, the department would prefer to implement a feeding programs for kids, she said. Lockett asked why the department does not sell pre-prepared food items such as cookies or chips to kids to help raise money for smaller expenses at the center. Layher said the department wants to encourage healthy eating with programs such as the vegetable garden at the Merrill Center.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“As they’re growing the garden, they can enlarge their food choices, and possibly go home and teach their parents,” Layher said. “Rather than giving them a cookie and a coke.”
Lockett encouraged the department to turn to community members to raise funds for smaller expenses of up to $2,000.
“From my standpoint, we’re fundraising as much as we can,” Layher said. “People are already complaining about [their fundraising efforts]. Raising funds in the thousands has been difficult. Our budget has been severely cut.”
Lockett said he had experience fundraising and asked Layher to “sign me up to help.” Layher said the department has formed a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, Friends of the Park, to raise funds.
“I know we can raise funds,” Lockett said. He said he and other residents have fond feelings about the city’s parks from their youth. “Parks have been good to me.”
Layher said the bathrooms and kitchen are the most urgent fixes needed at the center. She requested another $85,000 for upgrades such as dirt work to reduce flooding, new paint and bleachers in the gym, new flooring and workout equipment. The total funding requests amounted to $125,927. The funds would not come directly from the city’s general budget. The city’s Economic and Community Development Department recently received $126,000 from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The funds relate to a 2013 audit that found some HUD funds were misapplied. After paying back the funds, the city received part of the funds back with the understanding they be applied to HUD-approved uses. The requests will be forwarded to the City Council for consideration at a future meeting.
Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington said she would like to see a full assessment of all the needed repairs for the center.
“I feel that, if we’re going to renovate the Merrill Center, we need to do it right,” Washington said. “In my opinion, $126,000 wouldn’t get there with labor and materials.”
Trudy Redus, marketing and communications manager at Saracen Landing, appealed to the Public Works Committee to replace two outdated vans used by the Parks and Recreation Department to transport kids in summer programs. Redus said the current vans are year 2000 models, frequently break down and rarely have working air conditioning. The vans take kids to Little Rock for activities and as far as Mountain View in north Arkansas to explore the Blanchard Springs Caverns. Steve Miller, the city’s finance director, said discussions last year were held about purchasing the vans through Pine Bluff Transit, which can receive 80 percent of funding for the purchase from the federal government. Washington said she would speak with Pine Bluff Transit Director Charlina Lacy about the matter, and Redus said she would ask Layher to speak with Lacy as well.