By Bonnie Culverhouse
Minden Recreation Department has a budget wishlist that includes fans, score boards, batting cage pavilion cover and splash pad repairs presented as part of a City of Minden budget workshop last week.
Splash pads
Minden Mayor Nick Cox said the splash pads are an important recreational item at the parks and need an excessive amount of work.
“When there are no children there (at the parks), I don’t like to see them running,” Cox said. “The amount of water that pours through there when there are no children is really unbelievable. The cost is not just the pump cost, but all that water is treated to be drinkable, so I don’t like to see it wasted.”
One issue is updating the sensors, he said.
“Right now, we are going by there and manually overriding the splash pad parks,” he said. “They are running even when there are no kids there.”
Cost to repair the splash pads – at Victory, Ewell and Babb parks – is in the range of $47-$52,000. It would include metal cages constructed around the sensors to prevent vandalism.
The splash pads are around 20 years old, and according to Parks and Recreation Department Assistant Director Mike Aguilar, many replacement parts are no longer available, and when some are replaced, it starts a domino effect in order to make all parts work together.
Councilpersons agreed about the importance of the parks and said they would like to see the splash pads updated as much as possible.
“They are supposed to be programmed to come on every day at 10 a.m. and go off at 7,” Aguilar said. “If the sensors are working right, after four minutes, they will go off.”
Batting cages and pavilion cover
Councilman Andy Pendergrass said he would like to see more usage of batting cages at the rec department ballfields, but with no cover, the weather is a factor.
“We have four batting cages, and they are metal frames,” Pendergrass said. “If you go to other complexes, they are covered. You can imagine being in those cages practicing as hot as it is, plus if it rains, no teams can practice at all.”
Estimate to cover the cages is $85,450. For 12 LED strip lights, four fans – which would go in the top corners of the cages – and receptacles are an additional $13,600. All in, cost is around $100,000.
“A hundred thousand is a large number,” said councilman Buddy Myles. “I would like to wait until maybe next year.”
“The lights and fans would go with it,” Pendergrass said. “The cages would be used quite often because the maintenance guys don’t have to go get the fields ready for use, like they would for field practice.”
Pendergrass said he does not feel good about waiting.
“A lot of money has been spent at the rec to make the rec employees’ lives easier,” he said. “But I haven’t seen a whole lot of money allocated to make the experience of the kids better. Everything has been made easier on the people working out there. It has stripped down the experience for the kids.”
Scoreboards
According to Aguilar one of the scoreboards no longer works.
“It’s a digital board but something doesn’t work right about the wiring,” he said. “Two of the scoreboards need replacing because we have junior high baseball, Minden High – and Webster does their little league there.”
Cost for two new scoreboards is around 11,500.
Cox said that by deleting from the budget two generators totaling $235,000, more of the projects could be addressed.
“We’re in the top tier to get grants that will cover the generators,” Minden Fire Chief and Homeland Security Director Brian Williams said.
“If we back out that, we can do everything – the pavillion covers, scoreboards – for like $250,000, and we don’t have to pull from reserves.” Cox said.
Pool pumps
Lastly, the council discussed covering the pool pumps at the rec center. Enclosures for the pumps were added to the original budget, Cox said.
Rec Center Director Zita Williams said about $40,000 was spent recently to replace filters in the outdoor pool, as well as hundreds of dollars to fix pipes.
“We have covered the pumps with a tarp,” Williams said. “This is two winters straight we have had to deal with busted pipes, and those pumps were running. We have no heating back there … it’s not enclosed.”
Pendergrass said he would prefer to see the council cover the batting cages and save the pool pumps for the following year’s budget.
“We are covering stuff that’s meant to be outdoors, and not human beings,” Pendergrass said. “The vision at the rec needs to be about the kids.”
Cox stressed he believes it can all be done.
“If we took this whole list – besides the generators, we can be all in and all out and move forward with our lives,” he said.
To see the first story on City of Minden’s budget, visit:
City of Minden 2024-2025 proposed budget almost ready for public viewing