Highlights from the Parks & Recreation Board meeting
By Laura Swift

Enhancing and expanding the city of Murphy’s parks was the main focus of the May 9 Parks and Recreation Board meeting. The board reviewed kid-friendly playground design options for Murphy Central Park, as well as plans for extra park amenities and streetscape maintenance options for FM 544.

Community Services Manager Kim Lenoir kicked things off by presenting playground options for Murphy Central Park, specifically focusing on the advantages of community-built playgrounds. She cited the company Leather and Associates as a viable builder because it specializes in custom-built playgrounds and incorporates a town’s history, special community needs, and the geography of the site into its designs.

The company, which has a 40-year history of coordinating community-built playgrounds, said the majority of its projects take five to six days to complete, as community volunteers and builders work together to participate in the design, planning, and building of a playground. Leathers and Associates offers typical playground equipment like balance beams, rings and tire swings, as well as more complex structures like castles and water misters.

Following Lenoir’s presentation, Dennis Sims, a representative for park planning company Dunkin Sims Stoffels, showed the board a variety of design options for Murphy Central Park, including ideas for an amphitheater, pavilion, spray ground and a playground for phase 1 of construction.

After reviewing Sims’ and Lenoir’s presentations, the board agreed on a site to build the proposed amphitheater in Central Park, and discussed possibly adding a cover to the structure if the budget allowed. They also agreed to install a hybrid spray park with nozzles and water guns that will be appealing to a wide range of children, a pavilion design similar to that of Murphy’s City Complex, and landscaping with seasonal perennials, annuals and grasses that require low maintenance.

The board voiced that it wants the park’s playground equipment to appeal to both young and old children, and requested more playground plans and amphitheater designs to be shown and reviewed at the next meeting.

The board then motioned to recommend to Murphy City Council a proposed grant application to Collin County for Murphy Central Park to construct a restroom, concession and storage building as long it’s in continuity with the design of the pavilion and amphitheater.

Lenoir discussed the Collin County grant opportunity that warrants a 50/50 match with a $500,000 grant project that must be completed within a year. The project that she suggested would include a restroom, concession and storage building for Central Park. Since the funding comes from a county award, the project needs to be ready to begin construction in October 2011, Lenoir said.
 
The Murphy Community Development Corp. is providing funding for park rule signs and play equipment, and Board Member Julia Baldwin suggested that the board come up with a catchy tagline to be displayed on the new signs. In addition, the board agreed to move forward with the recommendation for adding playground equipment and a safety zone enclosure filled with mulch to Brentwood Park, as long as it’s within the budget.

The board also agreed to move forward with laying sod down on FM 544, but said that a comprehensive plan needs to be developed as funding becomes available to improve the road’s streetscape.

Lenoir said the 2008 installation project that included 17 plant beds were poorly installed which has led to more maintenance on FM 544. American Landscape Systems is set to install sod in the median beds as an add-on the to the current streetscape contract.