City officials and parks and recreation planners in Carthage will host the second of two public engagement meetings to talk about a proposed master plan for Carthage’s parks later this week.
Mark Peterson, Carthage Parks and Recreation Director, announced that the meeting will be held at 6 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 4 at Carthage Memorial Hall, 407 S. Garrison Avenue.
This meeting is a follow on to the first public engagement meeting, held Sept. 30 at the same location.
The city and Dick Horton Consulting, a firm based in Pittsburg, have been working for more than a year on a master plan for future development in the city’s parks.
Peterson said residents are invited to a “public celebration and conversation of core elements in the draft Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan that is called, ‘Our Town, Our Time.’”
“Please join us to visit with one another, parks and recreation staff, community leaders, and the parks and recreation master planning consultant about ideas for the preferred future of the parks and recreation system,” Peterson said in a written release. “Our first priority for our meeting is to listen to ideas from those who attend. After we have listened to those in attendance, we will share what we have learned from those who participated in the statistically valid citizen survey that was conducted in the fall of 2020, from Carthage stakeholder groups, and from its own assessment of the park system.”
Some of the preliminary ideas Peterson said will be discussed include:
- Trails.
- An expanded Farmer’s Market at Central Park.
- A contemporary aquatic facility.
- New contemporary designs for Municipal, Central, Carter, and Kellogg Lake Parks.
- Upgrades to all city parks (restrooms, lighting, signage, pavilions, playgrounds).
Public reaction
People who attended the Sept. 30 meeting seemed excited about what they heard.
Questions centered around costs of the improvements, how long it would take to make them, the development of trails in the parks and around the city, and other issues.
Hillary Campbell, who attended the meeting with her son, Sam Campbell, a 9-year-old swimmer on the Cat Tracks Swim team, said she was very interested in what she saw at the meeting.
“I think it’s a great plan,” Hillary Campbell said. “It’s exciting to see new things maybe getting to happen here in the town for families to do together and bring the community more together.”
Sam Campbell said he was excited about the plans for the aquatic center.
“I like the playgrounds too,” he said.
Christy Manning attended the meeting with her daughter, Olivia Manning, who swims on the Cat Tracks Swim Team and uses the Municipal Park Pool throughout the summer.
She said she loved the ideas she saw at the meeting.
“We travel to a lot of different communities and we’ll go to Northwest Arkansas, we’ve done the aquatic centers there, we’ve done their hiking trails,” Christy Manning said. “We’ve gone to Monett to their facilities and that’s a town about the size of Carthage, so we love doing different things as a family and we would love for Carthage to expand some of the opportunities in our own back yard.”
Olivia Manning said she’s excited about seeing the different improvements.
“I really want an updated aquatics center,” she said. “The one that we have currently in the summer out at Municipal Park, it definitely needs updates. It has kind of gone downhill and it definitely needs some new stuff done with it.
“The trails and the parks plans sounded good. That would he super cool, something to do. When you’re bored at home you can go hang out and you have something new to do. I ride my bike all the time and it would be cool to have those trails.”
Discussions on Sept. 30
Peterson and officials with Dick Horton Consulting presented some preliminary ideas to upgrade the parks at the first public meeting on Thursday, Sept. 30, also at Memorial Hall.
More than 50 people attended that meeting.
The plans presented at the meeting were drawn up after numerous meetings with groups and people who routinely use or hold events in the different parks and the completion of what Peterson said is a “statistically valid survey,” asking residents what they want from their parks.
The survey was mailed to hundreds of Carthage residents and also available online.
Dick Horton, owner of Dick Horton Consulting, and Chad Weinand, lead landscape architect on the master plan, presented some specific ideas that came from those stakeholder meetings and the survey.
In Central Park, preliminary plans called for:
- Expansion of the area dedicated to the Carthage Farmers Market, including some permanent structures that can also be used for other activities, including Food Truck Friday.
- Changes to the large central pavilion that will allow it to serve more comfortably as a stage for live music and other presentations.
- A splash pad to replace the wading pool in the park and upgrades to the existing restroom facilities.
In Kellogg Lake Park, preliminary plans called for:
- Dredging Kellogg Lake and improving the fishing access to the lake with benches and improvements to the banks of the lake.
- Improvements to the access to Spring River for fishing, kayaking and other activities.
- Installation of restroom facilities and a nature playground in the park. Kellogg Lake Park currently has no permanent restroom facilities.
The nature playground would include play structures using natural materials, including large rocks, fallen logs, mulched areas and earthen mounds.
In Carter Park, preliminary plans called for:
- Installation of a full-sized soccer pitch.
- Additions to the futsol court that was built inside an old tennis court a few years back.
- An improved playground area on the north side of the park, possibly including a spray ground.
- A new community garden area to be installed near the playground and spray ground area, along with restroom improvements.
In Carthage’s largest park, Municipal Park, preliminary plans include:
- A new community building that could be used by the Jasper County Youth Fair during fair days in July and other groups through the rest of the year.
- Upgrades and expansion to the existing facilities for the Jasper County Youth Fair.
- A modern aquatic facility replacing the existing swimming pool, including a lazy river, large bucket that dumps periodically, and upgrades to the existing pool house.
- A “destination, multi-generational playground,” that Weinand said will include more and larger features and play structures, climbing structures and things for all ages to do.
- Repurposing Carl Lewton Baseball Stadium into a game area and dog park after helping the Carthage R-9 School District build a new baseball facility closer to Carthage High School.
- Upgrades to parking in the entire park.
