Loading...
Park Board Minutes - 10/23/2025 Wichita Falls Park Board Meeting October 23, 2025 W.F. Recreation Center 600 11th St. Room 204 Time: 1:30pm Presiding: Steve Gamer Members Present: Sandy Fleming, Tim Lockhart, Patrick Hearn, Penny Miller, Dawn Ferrell, Luis Severin, Josh Phillips Members Absent: Jim Heiman, Larri Jean Jacoby, Alan Donaldson, City Council Representative: Tom Taylor Special Guess: Russell Schreiber Director of Public Works Other: Scott Powell, Cindy Cummings Recreation Coordinator, Kalee Robinson CALL TO ORDER: Steve Garner called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. 1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: . The minutes from September 25, 2025 were put before the Board for approval, Josh Phillips made the motion to approve the minutes and Dawn Ferrell second the motion. 2. DEPARTMENTAL REPORT: A. Recreation: • Report was handed out to all members. See Attached B. Parks: • Report was handed out to all members. See Attached C. Lake Wichita Revitalization Committee: • No update Government shut down E. Master Plan: • No update F. Other Business, Announcements, Comments: • Parks Foundation will start creating a board • Wagner Water Service donated 400 thousand to foundation and each additional year 100 thousand for next 40 years. • The Falls has been fenced off to the public due to safety issues • Over 110 cubic ft. of mud was removed from the site, construction will possibly take up to one year to repair before turning back on. Meeting was adj med at 2:30 pm. Signature: dikes "- / iG6v-rz..--/ Recreation Report Summary of Sept. — Oct. 2025 50 Plus Zone • Fitness equipment in Zone required ordering specialized parts but the machines are now running properly. • Kathy is trying to raise donations for a new wood dance floor in the ballroom and has secured $10,000 out of $36,000 needed • Quilt Show went well. Had 215 people attend the event. All the unsold quilts go to local charities such as hospice. • Daily attendance averaged around 200 per day with the fitness center having the most visits for the month, followed by the fitness classes and Bingo. • Kathy had several interviews with local TV station promoting Quilt Sale. • Cooking classes are well-received at the Zone and will continue as a result. • Live dances averaged 81.5 • Kathy is continuing to film the remaining footage needed to produce a full virtual tour of the 50 Plus Zone, which highlights all of the things we offer members. • Kathy assisted with the Halloween Event by judging the costume contest and helping in various other ways. Upcoming Events at the Zone • Live dance scheduled for Friday Oct. 30th with Kelby Hodges the Moonlight Bandit —they are expecting a large attendance. • Special Event on Thursday, October 30th. FREE dinner and Country Gospel and Country Music Concert and dance. featuring Bill Baker and the Country 3:16 band • Kathy promotes the Zone mainly through Facebook and all of the reports gathered from their platform reflect an uptick in views, interactions, and new followers. Recreation • Halloween in the Park on Oct. 18th was an outstanding success. It was enjoyed by well over 3000 participants. We added 4 new games this year, food vendors, craft sales and raffles, numerous informational tables from the Health Dept., Head Start and others. Also new this year we had a DJ and two local photographers taking pics of everyone. We have well over 200 photos on Facebook of the event. We also had Jalen Wells and Natalie McCain from KFDX as our judges, and a local DJ playing the tunes for our guests. We had a good turnout of about 50 volunteers from SAFB, Kiwanis, the library, Serenity House, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and a few others. • Texas Flood concert in the park had around 550 — 600+ attendees and the band was outstanding. They received two standing ovations before the night was over. Feedback on Facebook was nothing but positive and thankful for the concerts we provide. • Created a new program this year that targets city-wide participation — Halloween House Decorating Competition. It is a free program, people just sign up, decorate their house and on Oct. 26 — 28th the houses will be judged on creativity and People's Choice. Winners will receive a large gift basket with gift cards worth over $100 and Halloween-themed items in it. Athletics The lights at the complex — • Quinton hired RP Electric to troubleshoot the problem. • Underground wiring is suspected and parts are ordered. • Fall softball league is almost complete, and there are a few tournaments this coming weekend. • Maintenance crew is putting up the new scoreboards on the southern side of the complex fields. • Annual inspection of concessions pass? Tennis • Beginner Lessons are being offered Oct. through Jan. • Men's 4.0 and up league started a new session and increased participation from previous league. • After school Falls Town Courts Junior Academies, Home School Tennis, Christ Academy Tennis Academy and Chesterton Academy Tennis are still running in full swing with good attendance. • They are hosting a Halloween Adult and Junior Social on Fri. Oct. 24th, Participants come in their Halloween costumes and play with the Pros Parks Report 10/23/2025 Projects Installed new Historical Marker at the Youth Opportunity Center on MLK. Rotary Club installed new sidewalks around the playground and adding two more shelters with benches. Thanks to the RC the park has been transformed into one of the city's favorite Park to visit. Bridwell Park pavilion and restroom mural has been completed. The project is posted on Wichita Falls Arts Alliance website. Bridwell's baseball field renovation is coming along really will. The old backstop has been removed and the new dugouts and backstop will be getting installed soon. The new dog park fence has been installed. The concrete pad for the holing area will be installed in the next few weeks. Installed Music Play at Kemp Arts. ,wl d.., '�+ y' �G tea,'$R �1 t_ ti `ti r ./ R ,may yYr. . yam' 45" ; F ' ,,1 ' _ k' `< II t f ^ .''`- , - 'A i " �N� ��0���i l • "i°.1. I1�deNEI7I,111,0I �1�'�1 A litimi"� rs ik h ;.raj i IQllpl --------7--'1 ------ - - --). , ,--_,-.-5--,::;9-7,,'' e {7 m i etitA' '� r.v^ �a ri 5 aG ; F