Sparks Fly in Commissioners’ Court Over Parks

A discussion over a grant for Pugh Park and a master plan for the county became a heated debate in Tom Green County Commissioners’ Court Tuesday. The two items in question were a request for statements of qualifications (RFSQ) for Naismith Engineering, Inc. and the acceptance of an agreement to pay the company $26,355 to inspect the parks.

According to County Commissioner Bill Ford, who is heading the project, some improvements needed at Pugh Park include the continuation of the area around the boat ramp, a boat cleaning station, renovated bathrooms and picnic areas. The second aspect of the project is a master plan for the entire county. The proposal today focused on approving inspections of the parks in order to qualify for grants from Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW).

After Ford and Purchasing Agent Johnny Grimaldo explained the situation, County Commissioner Aubrey deCordova said the county may have needs that are higher priorities than park projects. These include the wages of county employees, infrastructure and an overstuffed jail. deCordova did express support for past work on the Pugh Park project, however,

“If we can get a master plan of starting to improve all these parks, then I think we’re going to put a lot of expense on future commissioner courts,” deCordova said. “Parks are nice to have, but I think we have a lot more expenses that come before the parks. So I say we pay our bills for what we’ve done and finish Pugh, but I can’t support anything beyond that.”

Commissioner Rick Bacon, who has worked with Ford on the county parks project, then explained that the master plan will only include expenses the community approves concerning parks. Furthermore, he made the point that some grants fund 100 percent of projects beneficial to the county.

Ford moved to approve the RFSQ in order to select Naismith for the project. However, the motion failed to pass at the time as the court asked further questions.

Grimaldo explained that the negotiating process for the parks was submitted in September last year and approved by the court. After information was gathered concerning the potential candidates and negotiations were made, Naismith was selected.

Commissioner Ralph Hoelscher led the meeting, as County Judge Steve Floyd was absent. Hoelscher asked if the county should have the grant in hand before they start hiring professionals. Bacon said it “doesn’t work that way.” He explained that the county has to go through this process in order to receive the grant.

deCordova then asked if the payment for the engineer’s inspection would create more expenses for the county.

“We have the money in the budget,” Bacon said. “It’s not an added expense. There was a parks grant line item for $125,000 for this year that we haven’t touched yet. So we’re going to take some of that money to pay for this.”

Hoelscher was still not convinced to back the project.

“Are we going to spend $26,355 to hire a person to tell us what we need to do in the parks for improvements?” Hoelscher said. “We don’t need to do that. We’ve got four commissioners here [who] can do that.

deCordova suggested for the court to wait until Judge Floyd returned and Hoelscher asked to table the item for next week. Ford reminded the commissioners that he had already made a motion to approve the engineer and Bacon said that he would at least like to get the first item concerning the parks addressed. Naismith Engineering’s RSFQ was then approved by all four commissioners present except Hoelscher.

The county then moved on to address approving the funding for the engineer.

“I know ya’ll are not real fond of parks, but we have them, and they are a tremendous asset to the county; the people in the county love these parks,” Ford said. “I’d hate to see them just deteriorate because we’re not spending that much money on maintenance on these parks. Our budget is minimal compared to some other items that we have in this county. I think the investment that we put into [parks] is a big plus. It brings people into the county and draws a lot of people from a lot of areas to the camping and fishing.”

After more discussion, Hoelscher asked the commissioners if they have to spend the money for the engineer before they apply for the grant.

“I’ve been trying for years just to get a little bit of roadwork done in a park and that money wasn’t available,” Hoelscher said. “We’re going to spend this money without even knowing we’re going to get the grant. We can take this $26,000 and put it in improvements in the park instead of paying a person to tell us what we need to do and then apply for the grant, which we don’t know we’re going to get. “

Ford responded, “Ralph, the $26,000 improvement on the park would take about 30 days and that money would be going to waste. We’re trying to put ourselves in a position to get over a million dollars in grant money to do these kinds of renovations to these parks, which is definitely needed because these parks have been neglected for about 45 years.”

Hoelscher said that Ford has to come up with some kind of plan for security.

“People are just tearing stuff up, destroying it, [there’s] no responsibility,” Hoelscher said.

Ford pointed out that addressing that issue was part of the larger plan for the parks.

deCordova then motioned to table the item for next week and Hoelscher seconded. Hoelscher than asked which point the commissioners were on. After he was reminded, deCordova and Hoelscher voted yes to table the decision while Ford and Bacon voted against it. Hoelscher tried to move on to the next point, but County Treasurer Diana Spieker told him the motion was dead, so the commissioners could not move on. Hoelscher asked what item the court was on again. Hoelscher then continued his attempts to move on, but he was told again that the motion was tabled.

Ford stormed out of the room for a moment, but shortly returned. Ford motioned to approve the contract, but the commissioners tied again. The commissioners clarified which item they were on once again for Hoelscher. After this last motion failed, the commissioners moved on to their next point.

“I think there was a little bit of confusion from the other commissioners on exactly what [the grant] is entailing,” Bacon said. “We’ll be talking with them a little bit more, getting them to understand what’s going on with that. It’ll be considered again for (next) Tuesday.” 

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