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Changes at Burns Park in North Little Rock

Started by justthinking, January 04, 2012, 10:37:18 am

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justthinking

Just to let you know. The city of NLR has taken over the park maintenance and will run the park during high school baseball. The NLR Optimist will still help with the American Legion program during the summer. I am afraid you will not be able to expect same quality of field maintenance you have in the past. I believe they call this "progress'!

Busman

In fairness, I spoke with the president of the Optimist Club and it was at their request, not the cities.  And North Little Rock does have one of the best park systems in the nation.

DickeyB

It will be an improvement if they got rid of Barney Fife aka Gerald Howard.  This guy ruins a really nice place.

BronxBomber

The fields are not what they were, and there isn't any reason to think that will change.

justthinking

In fairness, you need to find the all the facts about the city and issues concerning the "progress". The NLR Optimist will never "bad mouth" the city, then or now! You also need to remember that all the work by the NLR Optimist was volunteer. There was MANY, MANY hours put in at no cost to anyone! This was a much larger organization than most realized.

BronxBomber

The one field that used to be used by Little Rock Christian, in my opinion was always the best as far as playing surface.  The facility itself was always a dump, but the parents/coaches had that thing nice by the time games kicked up.  Now that they have their own place, it's the same as it has always been prior to the "work days" that happened multiple times a year and all the money they spent to "get it right." 

As far as the other field, the stadium itself is ok.  The surface could be maintained better by CAC or NLR High School.  When a school community feels as if it's "there" facility, the don't hesitate to work.  The newer field never has had the same "love" showered on it as the old field did, and I think it's because it is a shared facility whereas the older one "belonged" to LRCA.

sevenof400

Slightly off topic but still looking at Burns Park, the soccer fields are not what they once were either. It isn't fair to place all of the blame for this on any one group but clearly the City of NLR is not putting in the financial resources required to keep the park in top shape.   It is sad that the park's condition is being allowed to slowly erode.

slurve

Surely there is an entrenched corporation in NLR that could step up and take responsibility for that baseball stadium/field.  It could be the crown jewel of Dog Town.

Sad to hear about the soccer fields, if true.  I don't recall there being any major national tournies there in the past few years after having had several.

I'm not a tax advocate but,  it kind of makes you wonder if that tax increase that was defeated would've had any $$ earmarked for park maintenance. Nice facilities AREN'T cheap.

BronxBomber

I heard yesterday that NLR officials are paying an individual with 2 dogs, $250. bucks a day for the next 2 months to run freely in the park and shoo off the geese.  Do the math and that comes to nearly $15K bucks.  Is it just me, or could that money have been better spent?

BronxBomber

And to follow that up, that's only for the next 2 months while they have someone professionally training there own dogs to do the same thing. How much do you think 2 professionally trained dogs are going to cost in addition the the $15K?

ricepig

They won't need but 1 dog to run them off in the future. Also, I think some of the cost were furnished by the group that shut down the hunt. I don't have a dog in the hunt, wish I did $$$, but it's not good PR to P off the voters.

slurve

Quote from: BronxBomber on January 07, 2012, 12:03:13 pm
And to follow that up, that's only for the next 2 months while they have someone professionally training there own dogs to do the same thing. How much do you think 2 professionally trained dogs are going to cost in addition the the $15K?

Anything,  and I repeat ANYTHING is better than having goose blood on your hands !

Instead of training dogs they should've trained a den of red foxes, and not told anybody. The bloodthirsty foxes would hunt and devour the helpless geese at night (while they sleep) and nobody  would know.  If properly trained, the foxes (while digesting the goose meat) could also perform minor course maintenance duties (sand trap raking, leaf raking, etc) all before the sun rises so no one is the wiser.  Problem solved. 

If you use dogs the geese will only return again next year.

Just one poor soul's humble opinion.

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