Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Okolona nears completion on park nad community center

Okolona City Council members heard updates on the new city park and on the remodeled community center at Tuesday night's meeting.

Mayor James Paul said the park is nearly finished, with a full basketball court, picnic tables, a slide and playhouse structure, sidewalks and parking lots poured, and a swing set on the way.

Vickie Davis, treasurer and recorder, said the $25,000 grant that Okolona received on July 16, 2004, from the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, has nearly paid for the park "except for the swing set."

"The swings are the city's project and all that we have left to do," she said. "They will be paid for by the city, on top of the grant."

Mayor Paul said the swing set will be about $700 out of the street fund.

Part of the parking area will come from the street fund, as the basketball court was originally to be half-court but it was constructed full-court.

"We will have spent the entire grant and as much as $3,000 extra to make the full court facility, but I have looked around at a lot of parks in the state and I have not seen one to compare to what we have out there," Paul said.

Clark County Justice of the Peace and Okolona resident Frances McGill told the mayor solid grass at the park would look better than weedy flower beds.

Paul said, "We will put out three barbecue grills, one for each picnic table. Plus, four trash cans were given to us for the park.

"It is my intention to have a get together, with hot dogs and ice cream, and other goodies, at the park in July to celebrate its completion."

McGill, who is in charge of the project to remodel the Okolona Community Center, gave an update on that.

"With all of the lumber and labor figured, we have spent approximately $2,533.60 on the community center," she said.

"This is about what we have taken in, so we are nearly on break even. I believe we can come up with paint and help to paint it. And then, we will be doing clean up."

McGill said the next step to making the center totally handicapped accessible will be to build a ramp from the sidewalk and a ramp to the restroom.

Paul said the place needs cooling down in the main area. McGill said the existing air conditioning cools the cafeteria and some checking tells her window units for the main area will cost between $800 and $1,000.

Paul said he wants to hear a bid on central air before going that route.

McGill said her volunteer painter wants the pressure wash done before he paints. If he does the pressure wash, it will cost approximately $150.

Also, Clark County Judge Ron Daniell may build a road circling the center. McGill said he has agreed to research such a project. "We need a road," she said.

Mayor Paul said an anniversary celebration and a wedding reception are scheduled for the center in August "so we need to work on the air conditioning these next few weeks."

In other business, Council members unanimously passed a motion to have Okolona's county 1 cent sales tax money go directly to the county "as we have just been writing a check for the whole thing anyway," Paul said.

"This just saves us some paperwork. Our fire department does benefit indirectly from this tax money."

Moreover Paul said, Okolona now has a customer base of 257 water customers, 76 on sewer and 82 on garbage pick-up.

"We had a 10 percent loss on water this past month," he said. "I think somebody borrowed some of our water. Maybe they will bring it back."

The total water use for May was 1,541,470, with 1,704,000 pumped  a 162,530 gallon loss.

Total of all payments collected for May was $9,180.26.

In new business, the city is considering a $5 fine for animal owners who have a pet destroy someone's garbage.

Paul said, "This is a rural area and instead of a leash law I would be happy if we could just get owners to put their names on their pet's collar, along with a rabies tag."

Paul said the other problem under consideration is abandoned houses. He is considering cleaning up the houses and sending a bill to the owners.

"Many of them live out of state and do not deal with the looks of their property, as we do," Paul said. "We could send them photos of how it looks and ask them to either clean it up or let us do it for a fee."

Both issues were tabled until next meeting, which will be at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 5, at the Okolona Community Center.