Pflugerville parks staff preview Monarch Recreation Center, near-term park openings and trail projects

Shane Myers, director of Parks & Recreation for Pflugerville City, opened the commission's director's update with an overview of staffing and system scale, saying the department operates roughly 45 full-time employees, about 18 year-round part-time staff and roughly 100 seasonal hires and manages more than 1,800 acres of parks and roughly 70 miles of trails.

Myers and assistant director Jeff O'Shea led a detailed presentation of the Monarch Recreation Center, a multistory facility the city says will house extensive indoor amenities. O'Shea described the center as having multiple basketball courts, volleyball and pickleball courts, a large indoor turf area, extensive fitness space, an indoor aquatics area with two slides — one described in the presentation as a "stand-up" slide — and a 300-person event room. "It's gonna be the largest in Central Texas," Myers said during the presentation, and staff stressed that portions of the project are funded through a combination of the city's 4B sales tax (PCDC) and a public bond.

The city identified…