By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
Construction efforts at two of Glasgow’s city parks are coming along well, said Eddie Furlong, director of the Glasgow Parks and Recreation Department, during his parks update to the city council committee that works with related matters.
That group, technically called the Glasgow Common Council Planning and Development Committee, convened with all members present for its regular meeting Monday evening. He share a few photos from American Legion Park, with one showing work on the foundation of the pool house and the other two illustrating earth work on the site. The vast majority of the park is being completely overhauled with a new aquatic center toward the top of the hill and pickleball courts and more in the area where the city pool had been for more than four decades, along Happy Valley Road.
Furlong said digging out the pool area has already begun as well, adding that “most of that started week before last.”
He said the project is on track and hopefully it’ll stay that way.
Over the past two weeks, he’s submitted the desired colors for the slides, canopies and brick.
“That’s just to keep us on track so that we have our stuff in hand when we need it,” Furlong said. “I think you guys are going to be super impressed with the colors and the layout.”
This was Councilman Patrick Gaunce’s last meeting with this committee, as he is not returning to the council next year.
“I just want to say to the group, I appreciate everybody going through with this, ‘cause our community needs to see us as leaders investing in ourself, and I just think this is going to be something that’s going to be good for a long, long time,” Gaunce said.
Furlong said work at American Legion is on schedule right now, but weather over the next month or so might put a bit of a damper on that, “but we’ll just have to kind of wait and see what it actually does.” It was snowing outside when he said it.
The foundation for the pool house at American Legion Park is under construction. Photo courtesy Glasgow Parks and Recreation Department
Meanwhile, work reconstructing Richardson Stadium in Gorin Park is “coming along great right now,” he said, having also provided a few photos from there that were passed around.
The canopies that will provide shade over the two sets of bleachers were installed two weeks ago, he said, and the concrete work just got finished late last week, with the molding forms being removed earlier Monday.
“The bleachers are supposed to be here tomorrow, for them to start installing those, so that’ll kind of push the progress up a little bit quicker, and then there’s going to be a lot of finish work to do, once we get to that point,” Furlong told the panel.
Gaunce asked whether that meant there shouldn’t be any problem having everything completed by baseball season, and Furlong said that, barring a major catastrophe or something totally crazy happening, that was correct.
“We should be perfectly fine way ahead of time,” the parks and recreation director said.
Furlong said they had a little hiccup with some of the brackets that were needed to finish installing new security cameras in the parks and then the holiday put another wrench in that.
“They’re supposed to be here this week to finish everything up, and then we’ll have all the cameras across the city that we were supposed to have,” he said, “which we’re pretty excited about that, because it’s been a long time coming.”
He said he’s very pleased with how well the ones already installed are functioning and the resolution of the images.
“They’re a little more costly than some of them, but they do a whole lot more than just your general cameras,” Furlong said.
When all the cameras that have been ordered are installed, 37 cameras will be in the parks, which have had more than their share of vandalism through the years. Seven cameras will be on city properties in the downtown area, e.g. Glasgow City Hall and the parking garage, as well, he said.
Moving into program updates, Furlong said the adult volleyball leagues have about three weeks left and then will have about a month before the winter leagues start playing.
Bittyball practice started last week and games start Dec. 14.
People are still using the new pickleball courts at Gorin Park even with the past week’s weather, he said.
He distributed copies of the park rules and regulations and asked the committee members, who also include council members Chasity Lowery, the chair, Terry Bunnell and Freddie Norris, to review them and bring any suggestions to their next meeting, which is not expected to be until Feb. 3. After some discussion, it was determined they would not need to meet in January.
One other topic covered during the meeting was that of closing down the bathrooms in the parks for the winter, which was started about two weeks ago, Furlong said. With the exception of the bathrooms next to the parking lot at Beaver Creek Park, none of those facilities are heated, and if they aren’t properly closed down for the season, frozen pipes, leaks, etc. result, which can be rather costly, he said. When the process starts varies from year to year, depending on the weather forecast.
A family group had rented Weldon Park facilities for Thanksgiving weekend and had been told, he said, that they would have no bathrooms available, but apparently they didn’t hear or remember that information, because then multiple city officials started getting calls from the family members on Thanksgiving Day. Ultimately, some portable toilets were provided.
An idea Furlong said he had previously suggested of putting one or two portable toilets in parks over those winter months surfaced again, and that conversation ended with agreement that Furlong should check into the pricing, and they could go from there.
The committee also voted unanimously to make winter hours for the parks 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
