It is important for city residents to stay informed, and I would urge others to attend Committee of the Whole meetings as they can learn about current city news.

Recently, at the Sept. 12 Committee of the Whole meeting, residents who attended were pleased to hear some of the council members as they responded to the suggestion of opening up the city parks for overnight camping. Speaking on behalf of the mayor, the city business director introduced this agenda item. Many citizens have been discussing this issue lately and we want to thank Bob Robinson, Jimmy Denver and MelissaSmith for bringing up several valid points against such a proposal.

Creating a new ordinance for the conditional use of our city parks as overnight camping venues would be a bad idea. Whether the camping pertains to overnight “birthday parties” or motorcycle club camp-out rallies, the city does not currently have an ordinance permitting such use on public lands. It is illegal. It should not be considered in order to make a few extra dollars from fees collected.

Imagine campers sprawled around the caboose in Centennial Park, or overuse with vehicles in Old Town Park that already has large areas of bare dirt where grass has not grownback from past fairs or vehicles not staying in parking areas.

Until the city owns a suitable tract of land with some basic and appropriate facilities and has extra manpower, plus an expanded budget to operate and maintain overnight camping, then such a plan is neither feasible nor prudent.

The city of Gravette is very fortunate to have fi ne parks of which we can all be proud, but we all need to be vigilant and work toward their preservation, keeping them beautiful public spaces where friends and families have been gathering since the 1890’s.

News, Pages 4 on 09/18/2013