Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Parks Recreation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Crowley recreation officials outline park upgrades, bench donations and mulch plan ahead of summer
Summary
Recreation director reports successful opening day for programs, donor-funded benches for MLK Park, a bulk mulch purchase plan, and plans to put park lights on timers; staff also discussed removing water fountains and prioritizing playground and sidewalks work.
Crowley’s recreation director said the city’s spring recreation season opened successfully and outlined a set of park maintenance and improvement steps ahead of peak summer use, including donated benches, a mulch-buying strategy and plans to put park lights on timers.
“I had our opening day this past Saturday, and it was a success. We had all 55 of our recreation teams were able to play,” Recreation Director Zach Dujon told the council, summarizing youth baseball/softball operations and weekend tournament traffic that has brought hundreds of teams to Crowley in March.
Dujon said three benches were donated for Martin Luther King Park by several local donors and organizations and that installation is expected in five to six weeks. He described a bulk mulch purchase the department made to calculate costs for each playground: the department bought 200 bags for $400 (a promotional price), which covered more than 400 square feet; Dujon said an average playground needs roughly 100–150 bags.
Dujon also said city staff plan to remove some water fountains in parks as a safety and maintenance measure and that the city will install timers on lights at Eighth Street Park so the lights turn on at dusk and off per the city ordinance schedule. He gave a preliminary installation estimate for a timer on the tennis-court breaker box of about $250 to $300.
City staff and council members discussed sidewalks and playgrounds at length. The city engineer provided a rough material estimate for budgeting: one 8-yard truck of concrete provides about 150 linear feet of 4-foot-wide sidewalk. Council members and staff agreed to prioritize improvements at the city’s most-used parks rather than attempting a citywide overhaul, noting new playground equipment costs can range well into five figures.
Other maintenance items in the discussion included removing obsolete iron piping and water-fountain plumbing at MLK Park and completing subsurface drainage work at a new park pavilion project. A payment request from the contractor for park and pavilion work was approved by the public buildings committee (see Votes at a glance). The recreation committee said it will continue coordinating with public works to schedule mulch, bench installation and timer work before summer.
