Cottonwood Shores council approves park spending

By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula

The Cottonwood Shores City Council at its regular meeting on Thursday, April 7, voted to remove the BMX track from the city’s P-Squared Park after Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) officials approved the amendment to the grant contract.

The city already has spent $6,000 to remove the tires around the track, said Mayor Donald Orr.

The council also approved spending up to $7,000 of the $15,000 in the parks and recreation commission budget on construction to get Noah Thompson Park into Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, avoiding a possible $1,000/day fine from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR).

“We’re one step closer to finishing the parks and having them accepted by the TDLR,” Orr said.

Rex Holloway, parks and recreation commissioner, initially requested just over $6,000 to purchase picnic tables and create an ADA-compliant parking slab. After some discussion, Holloway modified his request to add topsoil for landscaping “to finish the project” and a wooden railing around the slab for safety because of a steep slope.

The commissioner accepted Councilman Marley Porter’s offer to donate metal railings.

The city has battled ADA-compliance issues with its parks since at least May, 2013 when a new administration came into office and was tasked with completion of parks grants that included ADA compliance in their contracts.

One of the reasons cited in the city’s decision to raise taxes in August, 2014 was to increase parks spending to pay for ADA-required modifications.

Also at the meeting, the Cottonwood Shores Volunteer Fire Department (CWSVFD) liaison with the city walked away with a $5,000 check from the city after the department met two more goals in its performance-based contract.

For more on this story, see The Highlander on Tuesday, April 12.