The Levelland Community Development Corporation held a regular meeting Wednesday, discussing past and future projects.
Slated for the meeting were the yearly financials and budget discussion for the upcoming fiscal year. However, due to the City of Levelland lacking three department head position which include the City Manager, Finance Manager and HR Director, the group opted to reconvene in a future meeting later in the month with the hopes that those positions were filled or addressed in the coming weeks.
Levelland Parks and Cemetery Director presented the 2022-2023 year’s projects.
Reichelt informed the group that L.G. Griffin Park and George Price Park have both their new pavilions and the lights that were installed at the Oxy Sports Complex for soccer are 95% complete, though switches and control modules have yet to be installed along with some minor turf work will have once the install is completed.
Further into the meeting, Reichelt discussed with the group about possible future projects in the upcoming fiscal year, with what he thought could be addressed sooner rather later.
The Parks and Cemetery Department is looking to install an ADA accessible Brashear Lake Fishing Dock that was estimated at $85,000. Reichelt added that he has heard a lot of positive feedback from the community regarding the fishing dock that was recently placed at Lobo Lake.
More space at the Oxy Sports Complex for maintenance proposing was also suggested with a “lean to,” being added to the current building for equipment that could be placed outside but at least shaded from the sun. The price was estimated at $16,000.
The scoreboard lights at the complex are in need of replacement as well. Reichelt explained that the bulbs can be replaced with white LED lights at $5,000. The current lights in the scoreboards are red and not LED, but switching the type of light was provide additional longevity and clearer projection.
Reichelt suggested the addition of more park benches and tables in several parks around the city. He explained that the current tables and benches in place can still be used but they are exceedingly old. Another project Reichelt suggested was moving into additional phases of the City Park where the lake is essentially a grass pit.
Main Street Manager Tania Moody provided an update on the Farmers’ Market Park that will be constructed in downtown Levelland. Moody explained that the park would be handled by the city parks staff after its fruition and was interested in visiting with the group in hopes of acquiring additional funds if the board was interested.
Moody presented the project to the board which included a mural feature, tricycle path, free Wi-Fi, vintage light poles, fence panels, garden beds, artificial turf, a chess table, splash pad, seating, a playground geared.
Moody also added that the park will be ADA approved and accessible to incorporate all children and give the community an overall place to enjoy themselves.
The Main Street Program was awarded a $50,000 community grant from T-Mobile and has an additional $50,000 budgeted already toward the project.
The project is currently 75% funded, with around an additional $50,000 to meet their goal.
Moody highlighted the splash pad, as many community members seemed excited for that form of addition to the area. The water feature could be an untreated system and could be recycled for flower beds and landscaping as well.
Moody explained that the park would open in June of 2024.
Continuing to seek additional funding, she is applying for other grants and talking to local businesses about helping to sponsor various portions of the park.
Reichelt also suggested the group consider the second phase of the sports complex.
A couple of board members expressed an opinion of adding indoor basketball courts due to the increasing popularity of area basketball. Members also spoke about adding softball fields with full-dirt infields in the next phase being option as the competition to bring in area and regional tournaments for baseball and softball has increased amongst various towns.
It was also added that a fulltime person dedicated to handling coordinating said events may be needed in the future as more events continue to be added due to the amount of responsibility that job has.
The note on the complex will currently be paid off within ten years and to start a second phase, it would require the board to open new bonds and look at the effect of the yearly payments.
David Copeland from Bolinger, Segars, Gilbert and Moss LLP of Lubbock presented the audit and noted that there were no significant audit findings with no new policies and no corrective entries. It was noted that the audit shows a net change of $65,916 for the year as the incoming sales taxes outweighed the payment on the complex’s bond and the expenditures for various park updates and improvements throughout the year. Revenues for the fiscal term came in $16,951 light of projections but expenditures came in light of the budget as well.