Conway’s attention turns to property outside new rec center

CONWAY The new recreation center in Conway has more than 3,500 members and now the city is turning its attention to upgrade the amenities outside the building.

In April the city will lay sod on a second multi-purpose field behind the center and in late spring will seed two adjoining practice fields with Bermuda grass, recreation director Foster Hughes told City Council members Monday.

Additionally, the city will build a new, 2,000-square-foot concession stand, realign a baseball field at the front of the recreation center, build a bridge over a canal and complete a walkway through woods between the center and the multi-purpose fields, pave a gravel parking lot and the road that connects it to Mill Point Road and repair and repave a parking lot at the senior center that is adjacent to the recreation center.

City administrator Bill Graham said Conway hopes to run the recreation center as an enterprise fund, where revenues would cover expenses.

But the parking lot work will be done with money from the city’s street and drainage funds, at least partly because the city wants to build up a pot of just-in-case money in the recreation center’s budget.

“We do feel like we need to have some reserve,” Graham said.

The repair of the senior center parking lot and paving it and the now-gravel lot will cost $87,763.

Graham said that the street and drainage funds already have money for all the projects the city had budgeted for the current fiscal year, and there is enough left over for the work at the recreation complex.

Should a street emergency arise before July 1, Graham said the city has other contingency funds that could be used to address it.

The 3,500 members are about 1,500 more than the city estimated it needs to fully-staff the new recreation center fulltime.

Graham said that it’s possible some of those will drop their memberships after their initial membership, and the city needs to be prepared for a potential drop in income.

City Council members approved the paving projects at the complex as well as the installation of four new scoreboards to replace the current ones.

That work will cost $19,432.49, mostly funded through a state grant. The city’s match of nearly $4,000 for the grant will be met with city crews installing the scoreboards.