City officials wrestle with upgrading parks

Local News

August 31, 2009

By David A. Farrell Picayune Item Mon Aug 31, 2009, 07:21 PM CDT

PICAYUNE — City Manager Harvey Miller and Parks and Recreation Director Ryan Moreaux said in a far-ranging interview that they are working on a comprehensive plan to maintain and upgrade the city’s seven-park system.

In Friendship Park, the city has one of the largest ball parks in the state. There are six additional parks sprinkled throughout city neighborhoods for residents to use.

The six community parks are Snyder on South Beech Street, Ben Taylor on Palestine, a park that has not yet been named on East Canal Street, J.P. Johnson on Rosa Street, Pat Blades on the west end of Goodyear Boulevard and Jack Read on the east end of Goodyear near the old City Hall.

In a recent council meeting, Council members Larry Breland and Lynn Bogan Bumpers complained that the neighborhood parks are being neglected while all the available funding for parks and recreation, what little there is, was being expended solely on Friendship Park.

While the smaller community parks are being mowed and kept up, most lack the proper playground equipment and are far from completed.

However, admitting that he faces a challenge, Moreaux says that Picayune has “the foundation” for an excellent park system, which, if properly upgraded, would be a showcase in Mississippi for what a park system should be.

Friendship Park on U.S. Highway 11 South behind the National Guard Armory, with 15 baseball and softball fields and four soccer and football fields, is one of the largest, if not the largest, ballparks in the state. All of the baseball fields and two of the four soccer-football fields are lighted.

In order to get the park up to its maximum potential, even after a $3.3 million expansion in 2004, there is still work that needs to be completed at Friendship. There are repairs that need to be completed to the old fields and there is a desperate need for a concession stand and restrooms for new fields in the southeastern section of the park.

The upgrade at Friendship is needed to attract tournaments from which the city could start generating some revenue to help defray expenses. The money maker for the park would be softball tournaments, which would pay fees to use the facility.

One recent tournament generated about $2,800 in income.

Attracting the tournaments would generate business for motels and restaurants here, as tournament participants pour in and spend the weekend playing in the games, sleeping in motels and eating. The influx would pour money into the recreational coffers, too, since a 1 cent tax is levied on restaurant meals and motel rentals and goes the parks and recreational budget.

The attraction of tournaments seems to be the only way for the park to generate income from the huge facility since concession operations are run by the leagues, which use any profits to support their programs.

Any suggestions that the leagues pay a commission to the city on the concessions, or a small fee for using the fields, meets stiff resistance from them, leaving the city and taxpayers to bear the full brunt of maintenance and upgrading expenses.

More than 1,000 children from all over the city and county use the huge park during the summer baseball programs.

Miller is optimistic about the parks, although the city is facing daunting budget restrictions. He said city officials will be looking for grants. However, he did not indicate how he might finance the needed upgrades within the city budget, if the grants are not found.

All departments have been told to take a 10 percent cut in the new 2009-2010 budget year that begins on Oct. 1, and that includes the tourism budget.

The tourism budget is supported by a 1 cent sales tax tacked onto restaurant, hotel and motel bills. That 1 cent tax generates about $350,000 annually for the tourism budget under which parks and recreation falls. It is collected by the State Tax Commission and rebated monthly to the city, like the city sales tax collections.

While that looks good for parks and recreation at first, a closer look shows otherwise. Right off the top of the $350,000 comes $262,000 a year to pay for the $3.3 million bond issue used to expand Friendship, leaving approximately $98,000 for maintenance and upgrade, surely not enough, for seven parks.

The parks and recreation department employs three people, including the director, and after salaries there is little left for any upgrades. Maintenance is expensive, and takes special tractors and mowers. It’s almost like maintaining a golf course, says Miller.

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