Monday’s Pine Bluff City Council meeting could be unusually brief, and it could also be unusually profitable for the parks and recreation department.
The meeting agenda consists of just four resolutions. Alderman Steven Mays is sponsoring two parks-related budget appropriation measures and Alderman Charles Boyd is sponsoring a proposed grant application authorization aimed at boosting Townsend Park.
One of Mays’ proposals is a repeat of a tabled issue from the council’s Aug. 6 session, when it was sent to the Parks and Recreation Commission for its consideration. It calls for the council to express its intent to include in the 2013 annual budget $250,000 toward the construction of a public swimming pool in Townsend Park. Mays’ second proposal calls for $50,000 to be placed in next year’s budget for the parks and recreation department’s renovation or replacement of air conditioning systems at the Chester Hynes and Merrill community centers.
Mays said the air conditioning systems are “woefully inadequate” in keeping the facilities’ interiors “tolerable during the summer.” Mays’ measure stipulates that each of the centers would receive $25,000.
Boyd’s resolution, if adopted, would permit Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. to apply for a 50-50 matching grant from the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism’s Outdoor Recreation Grant Program. The money would be earmarked for assisting in the development of new recreational features within Townsend Park.
The final resolution is a standard declaration of certain houses, buildings and/or other structures as nuisances and order of their abatement.
The council meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. The ordinances and resolutions, and ways and means committees will have separate meetings at 5 p.m.