Hope Lions Hear Program on Hope Parks Department
The Hope Lions Club heard from Summer Chambers of the Hope Parks and Recreation Department on Monday (6-23). Chambers noted the parks have finished up baseball and will host the softball state tournament this coming weekend. That will wrap up the spring sports.
Chambers said the parks department had a spring soccer season this year. This was successful and attracted 230 youngsters. That will continue in the future. Chambers said soccer is one of their most popular youth sports.
Free summer programs for youth aged 6 to 12 takes places Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am until noon. These are drawing around 35 to 40 young people with numbers rising occasionally to 55. On Thursdays the kids swim and on Tuesday there are other programs including from the Cooperative Extension office, the Arkansas Game & Fish, crafts for the kids, outside activities such as kickball and baseball. Chambers said the goal is to get the kids outside and into other activities instead of just playing games on their phone. The program has been going for seven years.
Chambers noted the Watermelon Festival is coming up in August and there will be a softball tournament in conjunction with the festival. She said so far 82 softball teams are signed up for the watermelon festival tournament. Chambers also mentioned the upcoming fireworks set for July 4th at the airport.
The Lions heard about the new improvements coming to the parks and the new aquatic center. Chambers said the new splash pad at North Side Park will be one of the first projects as well as pickleball and tennis courts at Fair Park. Chambers said artist renderings of those facilities can be seen at hopearknasas.net online. She said they should have an artist rendering of the splash pad when those plans go out to bid in the next two weeks. After the bid is awarded for the splash pad, it will take 6 to 8 weeks for the equipment to be built and construction should take a month.
The new aquatic and rec center will be at 16th and Spring HIll Road near the Kelly Fields. The facility will have a competition size pool, two basketball courts, an indoor walking track, and a new outdoor swimming pool to replace the 1948 pool still in use at Fair Park. Chambers said initial designs are on the city website. The design phase should begin this fall and the project should go to bid next year. Chambers said it should take 14 to 16 months to construct the new rec center.
