Last weekend’s column on the condition of Veterans Memorial Park’s (VMP) softball field has drawn attention from the citizens of Beeville and hopefully our elected city officials.
Several comments to me went along the lines of, “It’s about time. Something surely does need to be done. Why doesn’t the city do something?”
Well, it probably comes down to the biggest problem Beeville has with regards to the parks and recreational facilities available to the citizens and visitors to the city — MONEY and the lack thereof.
It seems that the problem could and should have been resolved many years ago with a funding source delegated from the tax bases already in use by the city. An allocation of a tenth or an eighth of a cent from the motel-hotel tax, or an increase therein, could possibly have given the city enough funds to provide not only maintenance, but for improvements to the parks. Grants are also available for such improvements but the city needs someone to go after those grants, donations and endowments.
I am not an expert in government funding, but it sure does seem other cities and governments across the state and nation find the money necessary to provide their citizens and visitors safe, clean and adequate park facilities. Good parks and a multitude of recreational choices can and are a tremendous benefit to a city. They help bring in new industries and jobs. A company looking to relocate or start up will investigate all aspects of living within a possible locale. Parks and recreational facilities definitely a play a role in their decision.
A Parks and Recreation Department needs to become part of our city government and funded within its confines. Funds for its budget need to be allocated on a yearly basis and its budget should be substantial enough to provide maintenance and improvements in a timely manner.
The city maintenance crews do what they can as far as cutting the grass and providing some needed paint on occasion, but that is about it. Users of the park and softball field have been told if improvements are needed and requested, just “Do them yourself.” Paraphrasing and reading between the lines that comes down to “Spend your own time, money and effort because we (the city) won’t and/or can’t.”
In talking with a few of the old-timers in the city, they mentioned that the VMP was once a real showcase for Beeville and was used by a lot more people then as opposed to its present usage. People swarmed to the park on holidays to camp and enjoy the outdoors. Playground equipment was readily available and in good shape.
“It was the place to be on Easter weekend,” said one citizen that remembered the good old days.
At minimum, the park needs restroom facilities. The Little League facilities are no longer adequate to meet the needs of the league and/or the tournaments that are hosted by the Beeville Little League. The recreational areas still in use have no decent, workable restrooms available. The park will host two high school cross country meets this fall that will bring hundreds of teenagers, their parents and coaches to Beeville from around South Texas. And to accommodate them, A.C. Jones has to rent the use of four Port-a-Potties and their cost of approximately $500 per meet will come out of the A.C. Jones tournament funds. The expense of a few gallons of “Germ-X” will also be placed on the high school as there are not facilities available to even wash your hands in the park.
The city has graciously allowed the Coastal Bend College athletes to use the small football field for soccer and the aforementioned softball field for this coming spring’s softball play. The fledgling sport program at the college needs all the help it can get, but yet the city asked, or maybe it told them, “But you have to cut the grass if it needs mowing.”
Five college soccer teams are scheduled to play the Coastal Bend Cougars at the VMP site. That doesn’t even take into account the number of softball teams that will be coming to the park.
What is the city of Beeville showing and telling these many visitors to the VMP? Is it what the city wants and is it what the citizens of Beeville deserve?
I have also been told that there may be a light at the end of this long dark tunnel. The present parks committee has a few things working to get Beeville headed in the right direction, and hopefully so. All it will take is money and its sources are being located.
If new facilities and improvements are provided, will the city have the ongoing funding in place to provide the maintenance, upkeep and upgrades needed in the future? Not in its present configuration and not with the present manner in which most of the city fathers conduct themselves with regards to this problem.
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