One headline said numerous projects were underway at the city’s parks, and another said the Jaycee golf course, also a city park responsibility, was being ignored. Those sound like mutually exclusive events, but they also sound like a parks department at work.
Theater seating at the Regional Park amphitheater, new electrical service throughout the park and the RV park, necessary because of flooding, lighting for the ball fields, pavilion repairs, a complete makeover of the Chester Hines Community Center. Those are just some of the projects going on in the city’s parks, and at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Some of that money comes out of the city’s coffers, some from grants and some from federal funds to pay for natural damage at some of the parks.
And then there’s the Jaycee course. A group of individuals whose job is to keep an eye on the golf course expressed concern that the course, without a greenskeeper, was being allowed to fall into disrepair.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“Since we have not had a greenskeeper, the condition of the course is deteriorating,” one person said.
It’s good that an outside group is being a watchdog for the course. But as Parks and Recreation Department Director Samuel Glover pointed out, greenskeeper or not (and they are looking to hire one), at no time has the course been allowed to regress. The problem, he said, is that it was allowed to regress for years, and the progress being made now to improve it is slow.
“We want and need a golf superintendent out there to join the team, but the notion that there is some type of neglect – we have invested over $200,000 at Jaycee since 2019. The Jaycee golf course is a major construction overhaul. We have to phase these projects out and see things down the road. It’s going to take a three-year, five-year and 10-year plan to get this thing back up because you let it go under for 30 years.”
In short, Glover called conditions at the course, including the pro shop, “beyond awful.”
Those are not the comments of someone who is crying about money and saying the course is as good as it’s going to be. No, those are the comments from someone who absolutely knows what’s there is not acceptable and who is working out a long term plan to set matters straight.
Cities need little golf courses where a person on a budget can play a round. And if Pine Bluff is going to have that type of course, the grounds need to be shown some love and respect. It sounds like we’re getting there.