GENTRY — New rules will soon take effect for all of Gentry’s city parks. The city council, without discussion and with rules suspended, adopted on its second and third readings Monday night an ordinance amending parts of city code regulating city parks.
The ordinance, which goes into effect after legally-required publication, includes the following provisions:
• Parks are closed from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m., except for the Flint Creek Nature area which would be closed from dusk until dawn (when the sun is six or more degrees below the horizon). Violators could be charged with criminal trespass.
• Parking is prohibited on the grass except when expressly allowed by the city.
• Prohibited in city parks are camping, open fires, hunting, firearms, swimming, boating, fireworks (except those sponsored by the city), seining, glass containers, littering, unauthorized cutting or removal of trees or plants, and horses (except in the Flint Creek Nature Area).
• Fishing must be in compliance with Arkansas Game and Fish Regulations. Rod and reel fishing will be the only method of fishing allowed, and a creel limit of three fish per person will be set.
• Pets, when allowed (they are currently prohibited in the main city park on the day of the Freedom Festival and the October Festival), will be required to be on a leash at all times and all pet waste must be picked up and removed.
• Unauthorized motor vehicles will be prohibited on the grass, trails or sidewalks.
• Fees for reserving pavilions will be set at $15 for a half day and $30 for a full day.
• Fees to reserve the softball park will be $30 per day or half day.
A second ordinance passed on its second reading Monday. If passed on its third reading, it will establish the following rules for the city’s cemeteries:
• Setting the price of burial spaces at $300 per space, with full payment due before burial or monument placement.
• Monuments must be grade level or placed at the headstone in line with adjacent markers.
• Caskets must be placed inside vaults.
• Up to two interments are allowed in the same space as long as one or both of the interments are cremations and, in the case of a casket burial and a cremation, the casket is first buried in a vault and the subsequent cremation burial is no less than 24 inches deep.
• Trees and other plantings at graves, as well as grave fences and other obstacles will be prohibited.
• Only the city or its designee may open or close graves.
• The city may remove decorations placed at graves at least twice per year and will remove decorations and flowers not attached to headstones one week after Memorial Day.
The cemetery ordinance will be brought back for a second and final reading at the November council meeting.