GENTRY - Building public restrooms in the city park was the main topic of a parks commission meeting held on July 30 at city hall.
With the promise of $35,000 from the Gentry United Way toward the building of permanent restroom facilities in the park, the commission recommended to the city council that it move forward with selection of an architect to design and draw up plans for restrooms which would be safe and well-lighted, as well as resistant to vandalism.
Current restrooms in the city park have been closed and locked for a number of years because they were vandalized and plumbing fixtures were destroyed within minutes of their being opened. Since then, the city has used portable restroom facilities in the park.
Recent studies have indicated that Gentry residents see the need for restrooms in the park as a top priority in improvements to the city’s park system.
Several basic design models were viewed by commission members at the meeting, with most saying they liked a plan with a large pull-down door to close the facility at night and a well-lit entrance to the restroom areas which is visible from the street or roadway to reduce the risk of vandalism or other criminal activity. The placement of security cameras outside the facility was also discussed.
Commission members said that a commitment from the city to patrol and maintain a park restroom facility was needed even if suffi cient funding could be obtained from sources outside the city to build the restrooms in the park.
Mention of other grants which might be available to build the restrooms was included in the discussion.
Gentry mayor, Kevin Johnston, announced that bids were opened earlier in the day on July 30 for the pond project at the proposed Flint Creek nature area, with the low bid coming in at $91,000.
This is the second time the project was put out to bid, with the fi rst bids coming in at nearly twice the amount of money - $83,000 - the city has in grant funding for the project. A large part of the cost was related to transportation of materials to and from the ponds, Johnston said.
According to Johnston, a review of the project revealed that it would not be necessary to dredge out the upper portions of the ponds as deep as initially planned, nor would it be necessary to truck in large amounts of clay to line the ponds and to truck out silt from the ponds because core samples revealed the presence of clay in the ponds and part of the silt could be used to build a berm to set the area off from the roadway.
Additional dredging could be done in the upper portions of the ponds at a later date if it is needed and funding becomes available, Johnston said.
Johnston estimated that it would be possible to reduce the $91,000 bid by approximately $31,000 by using part of the silt to build a berm and storing the rest of the silt on site until a later date. After the cost of architectural and engineering fees, this would leave the city a $10,000 buffer which could be used to haul off silt if it was left after the primary project was completed.
It was estimated that it would only take 45 days to two months to complete the pond project once work was under way.
Bev Saunders, executive director of the Gentry Chamber of Commerce, told commission members that her daughter, Jodye Pool, had received an internship from theArkansas Department of Education to develop a K-12 curriculum for use of the natural area by regional schools. This curriculum was almost complete, Saunders said.
Johnston also reported that a number of electrical improvements had been made in the park, with the installation of 400 amp service and a switch at the ball fi eld to control the lights there. The improved service provided suffi cient electricity for the July 4 celebration and will make it possible to light up walkways in the park at a future date, Johnston said.
Johnston said a ninehole disk golf course had been mapped out in the park and three goals would soon be installed, with more to follow in the future.
He said the Walton Foundation was funding a two-county Heritage Trail plan to map out and plan a base trail system connecting area cities and towns. Cities of a population of 1,000 or more will be assisted in developing a trails plan.
Because the Trail of Tears and military trails pass through the Gentry area and lie west of Gentry along Arkansas Highway 43, Gentry was expected to benefi t from the plan with a base trail system and to have historical trails and sites included in the overall Heritage Trails maps.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 08/07/2013