Arkansas Blog

Funny how no one thinks of tearing down the STADIUM, which is used to capacity only twice a year, and also hosts some high school games, which could be played at a remodeled Ray Winder Field. I expect over the course of a year the golf course gets as much or more business. Of course the stadium's main function is as a parking lot for the Health Department.

Not on the topic of War Memorial, but related to city government shenanigans. Check this link out for some interesting reading:

http://www.wildlifearkansas.com/061005-news.html

They are trying to grab money intended for rare species conservation. The project they propose would benefit no rare species. Most in attendance at this meeting were aghast that such a project would even be proposed (not the stated intention of the funds, which are federal dollars by the way).

The city director behind the Granite Mountain issue is also involved with this. There is a quiet little committee working on this wetland restoration project - a restoration effort that won't really succeed due to significant hyrdrologic issues. Vanity project. That is what it is.

I am more inclined to let the board vote to demolish the STADIUM and then organize a recall of the Mayor and all the Board members who vote for the destruction of the STADIUM. Wouldn't be hard, would it? #1 MIGHT work ahead of time. #2, since when has criticism been a deterrent to ANY elected official? Do you walk to work, Max, or do you drive? Have you parked along the trolley line and had to wait for the millions of dollars of empty boondoogle creep by so you can open your car door? i am tired of driving on potholed city streets so tourists that don't ride the thing can have a taxpayer subsidized trolley. Yes, I have ridden the damn thing and it sucks - royally. Been out to the Big Damn Bridge, too. What a waste, what a waste.

Considering how rapidly the idea of a Target (something the midtown communities really need) being developed on the golf course was shot down a residential development would get nuked before the public ever knew about it. There's no way that would happen and even though a developer might be pushing it, I don't think that means the city council is.

The city board could allay the fears of those of us who don't trust them by passing a resolution that War Memorial Park will not ever be used for private development. Let the resolution state that any board member (or mayor) who suggests allowing private development in the park will automatically lose his or her place on the board and will be required to cover the cost of the special election to replace them.

I took up golf about 10 years ago. I live down the road from War Memorial and have played there for years. When I was a kid I used to caddy for my Dad when he played there. Unlike most of my serious golfer friends I have warm feelings about the place. Having said that, WM is an absolute goat track. It WOULD be a nice little municipal golf course if the city would keep it up. But what can you expect of a golf course where they allow folks to park and party on the fairways?

As long as they are not serious about golf at WM it will be a lousy, if amusing, golf course. You can't have a "mixed-use" golf course.

Our problem is not our form of government. Any system will be corrupt in Little Rock because of the nature of the social/business community that runs the place.

Stacy and those behind the rape of the golf course have carefully gone through the motions of presenting their little smoke screen without providing any real information despite resistance at every turn from the citizens.

They clearly do not represent the interests of the citizens. Their denials are only often enough and loud enough to deflect criticism because they know they will have to eat their words when they finally have to present their boondoggle.

Golf and tennis are perfectly good activities for city parks and for the area. As has been pointed out, the only real need is to improve the existing facilities. With Ray Winder and other empty corners of the park there is plenty of room for any needed additions. Actually, having a golf course in the middle of town is a very unique feature that many cities would love and promote.

That is another aspect of our dysfunction. We seem never to recognize our unique nature and gifts and develop our city based on those. We are always determined to copy the latest hot trend or development of some big city only to abuse the process in favor some local blue nose.

Beyond that is the real need for leadership. It is hard to image a grass roots campaign that will provide the civic minded citizens needed to run the place properly but, I agree with Max, our inability to trust our government is both highly necessary and highly destructive.

(There are 3 acres adjacent to Butler Park currently available and 5 acres next to those that are tree covered and undeveloped that would make a wonderful city park for that area but were don't see any action from our Parks Department on that.)

Dear Yagotta: Yours is a reasoned and logical assessment of the situation, and your vision for Little Rock's parks is a wonderful one.

However, with all the parks fees and budgets pledged to pay off the land where the Clinton Library stands, there isn't even enough money in the LR parks budget to feed the groundhog at the Zoo, much less expand or improve War Memorial Park or Butler Park.

The Zoo is more of an embarrassment than the poor tire-track-destroyed golf course. A drive past there reveals a horrendous eyesore where dozens of animals have perished in the last few years.

War Memorial Park will never be safe as long as the Kumpuris-Hurst axis of evil is left to decide its fate.

Talk about the Springdale mafia! It has nothing on the WM Gorilla Golfers. What they never want to discuss is LR's abundance of public courses, Rebsamen, Hindman, First Tee. It is a simple fact that LR has plenty of golfing options and very few green space parks. The Gorilla Golfers wear blinders. And Claude, zoos house animals. Those critters reproduce in the facility and they die in the facility. Natural process.

LR needs more green space for families to enjoy. We have plenty of golf courses.

Mouthin,

I don't know what your point is. There are only about 10 other factors that make War Memorial Golf Course appealing and important in that location. LR's size and budget does warrant any expansion of a zoo that has looked more like a construction site than a zoo for far too long.

The words 'green space' sound wonderful but, all of Arkansas is a green space. Midtown has acres and acres of Allsopp Park only a few blocks away. The words green space do not justify the destruction of existing facilities.

I don't believe that if I were a female ad executive I would adopt the screen name "Mouthin' Freely." Sounds a bit, well, Monica-esque -- and it's what everyone suspects anyway.

When some of the study numbers were released, the budget numbers for the citys' three public golf courses were listed. Beyond fees obtained for using the course and golf cart rentals, War Memorial costs roughly $650,000 a year to maintain, Hindman $300,000 and Rebsamen breaks even.

Also, people forget to mention Burns Park has a nice public course to play as well, much nicer than WM and one of the better municipal courses in the state. Nothing tops Rebsamen but that's a solid course as well.

WM's course is such a financial drain and of reasonably poor quality I think it's reasonable to close it, though I would be vehemently against closing Rebsamen (a city treasure), Hindman or NLR's Burns Park. WM's golf course can be used for other park purposes but I think development should be out of the picture.

The figures change everytime they are released. These are about triple what they were last time. That and the fact that War Memorial, the smallest of the three, is listed as over twice as expensive as Hindman is a pretty clear indication that the figures are being misrepresented.

We are fed only the numbers that support the process but very little other information. That's very curious. I have yet to hear a reasonable idea on what the 'other needs' are.

Sure there are other golf courses in the area. War Memorial is very unique in size and design. It is a very challengeing course that can be walked in less that 2 and a half hours. It represents golf as It used to be. If it is preserved and maintained it can be a real asset to the city especially as the baby boomer retirement boom hits full speed.

Of course if an actual plan was presented that didn't give an acre to private development then it could be discussed. But after three years of meetings and newspaper articles it is still just a myth waiting on the proper timing and political climate.

Once again, "ya", you're throwing out accusations that have no basis in reality. You can check the War Memorial Golf Course budget going back ten years -- long before this process ever started -- and you'll find that it is a major money loser. And you'll see that any attempt to raise fees to cover cost is met with golfers leaving in droves. So who are you really -- the War Memorial Greens Keeper? Get over it.

Of course if an actual plan was presented that didn't give an acre to private development then it could be discussed. But after three years of meetings and newspaper articles it is still just a myth waiting on the proper timing and political climate.

ya - maybe the reason the other courses are in better fiscal shape is that more people play them. That's certainly the reason Rebsamen breaks even as it's a much nicer, larger, and better maintained course.

There were two plans presented -- neither one of which sold off parcels for private development.

LR has the opportunity to tie the campuses of UAMS and St. V togehter as well as the shops on University Ave through walking trails and pedesterian walks. That cannot happen if a golf course continues to gobbles up the majority of green space in WM park. LR has a unique opportunity to develop a park bordered by two major health facilities which can be tied to shopping and entertainment. The welfare of the majority should definitely outweigh the vocal minority in this case. If planned properly, the area bordered by University Ave on the west, Cedar on the east, Markham on the north and 630 on the south could be a become a unique health/fitness, park and shopertainment district. Dream big LR. The citizens are ready.

Shopertainment district? Oh yeah. Just what is needed for successful park usage.
I looked this topic over earlier and figured I didn't have a dog in this hunt. But you punched my buttons, Mouthinfreely. Why does a city or town, a city or town anywhere, establish a park and then see how much they can cram into it?
Let's see. Around here we started with a nice little tree shaded park.
Ball fields and parking lots gobbled up about half of it, but that was OK. Kiddies need a place to play ball, I guess. Tennis courts -- so well maintained that you could break a leg on them easily, but we got tennis courts! Then there was a stage. We might want to have music around here occasionally.
And walking trails. Exercise is good for you, so walking trails it is.
But the leaves! No one wants to rake leaves. Cut the trees! Perfect solution! No leaves to rake. No acorns or hickory nuts to contend with. No critters doing nasty things on your head.
Uh, no squirrels or birds to watch, no shade from the summer sun . . .
And that little usually dry creek bed . . . why some child could fall into it and drown, if it ever held any water. Plop in drainage pipe and cover it over.
Gee, is the park looking a little bare?
Ok, so buy some property and enlarge the park -- and build a ball field, some walking trails . . . hmm, those trees . . .
Uh, have we been here before?
Say, do ya think we could interest Wal-Mart in 40 acres or so, already cleared and partially paved?

I got a call this afternoon. She was going to play at War Memorial. She was going to play by herself and she figured she could get on and after a couple of hours she could leave if she needed to and still feel as if she got her money's worth.

That's WM. It's an amusing little track if you want to go out and screw around. And it cannot be denied that a lot of the golfers around LR learned to play golf over there. Dad used to give my brothers, like, 10 bucks and drop them off for the day. ( That was 30 years ago or more) That's how they learned to play golf. That's how a lot of folks learned to play golf.

WM has a very passionate and honorable constituency. But they need to make it a real golf course and maintain it accordingly or they need to do something else. I'm not so sure that the "highest and best use" is as a golf course.

But I can also see a real golf course w/a real club house that sells golf stuff down the street from the Midtowne Mall where Jos A. Bank also sells golf stuff.

We just need to make up our mind....

Dolgotta,

Did I miss your point?