PORTAGEVILLE — The Portageville Park Board is looking to improve parking at the baseball field while possibly downsizing the size of the skate park.
At the most recent City Council meeting, Park Board President Melissa Maness approached the Council and asked how much funding was left in the annual budget. Maness said the project would cost $3,500 and was told there was $3,800 left in the budget.
“What we are looking at, there is insufficient parking at the ball field,” Maness said. ”On 10th street, cars are parking on either side of that, some park close to the edge of ditches and dirt caves into the ditch and folks complain they cannot get in our out their driveways,” she said.
Maness said while the skate park used to have lots of interest 10 years ago, now only a handful of kids are using it.
“So what I plan to talk about at the next park board meeting is re-arrange the skate ramps, and there are a few straight skate boards that nobody uses,” Maness said. “We may look into consolidating some of the ramps and maybe move it into the interior of the park. Children will be less likely to cuss, drink, smoke or whatever it is they are doing there.
Maness added that by downsizing the skate park, more parking could be created for high school baseball games and other league games.
The Council approved for them to have the full amount of $3,500 for the project.
In other action:
• In his monthly update about the new sewer plant under construction, Jeff Lange, resident engineer with Crawford, Murphy and Tilly (CMT) engineering firm provided handouts to the council members, asking if they saw the part abut the grid screen not being shipped to about May 25. “We did not find out about that until last week, that may push us like to the second week of June,” he added.
• Larry Bradford, president of Southern Solar Systems, of Huntsville, Ala. came before the board with contract documents about the new solar upgrades and explained in detail what was involved. After his explanation, he and the mayor signed the contract.
The new upgrades will entail cutting down three trees behind the water plant and to take in some of the ground going into the Adams Little League Park. However this will not interrupt the park road.
• The Council purchased a new software program, Clear Basin Tax Program, for the collector’s bill collecting system.
• Council approved a six-percent raise for the city collector.
The next regular meeting of the City Council will be May 6.