Monroe City Council approves $200K for landscape architect to clean up parks

Ian Robinson, Monroe News-Star
·3 min read

Three parks and several community centers in Monroe will be soon getting a much-needed facelift.

The Monroe City Council unanimously approved spending $200,000 to retain a landscape architect to develop master plans to revitalize three parks within city limits at its Tuesday meeting.

The city will enter into a professional services agreement with Baton Rouge-based CARBO Landscape Architecture. The firm is expected to enter master plans for Chennault Park, Forsythe Park and Charles Johnson Park.

"The idea is to look at three largest parks here, within the city, and to look at them holistically so we can talk to the community," Shannon Blakeman, managing partner of CARBO Landscape Architecture, said. "Engage the community about what they want to see in those parks and work together to create a short-term and long-term masterplan, taking into account some of the things that are planned for those parks already. How we can fold those things in and also maybe do some other things to really elevate those parks based on input we received from the community."

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Blakeman said the firm will also at smaller parks within the city for any improvements that could be made.

Councilwoman Juanita Woods asked if the Chennault Golf Course would be included into the park master plan, particularly, because the golf course, which is currently in disrepair, is used by several local organizations, including the Twin City Golfers Association. Robert Clark from the Twin City Golfers Association addressed concerns about the golf course at the beginning of the meeting.

"There are a lot of dollars generated at Chennault Park and I think we can generate even more if we do some major enhancements to the golf course," Woods said.

"Definitely," Blakeman said. "We will talk with Mr. Clark and anybody else that's interested."

The council also agreed to enter into a professional services agreement with Manning, APC, a New Orleans-based firm, to perform a facility assessment on the city's seven community centers.

"Of course back in the '60s our ancestors thought enough of the City of Monroe to give us not one, not two, not three but seven community centers," Monroe City Community Centers and Programs Director Patience Talley said. "Because it was back in the '60s, you can only imagine the trials that we've recently seen within our community centers."

Several of the centers housed hundreds of displaced residents during the winter storms in 2021, as well as Lafourche and Terrebonne Parish residents during Hurricane Ida. Talley said the A/C units in the seven community centers went out sometime during the summer.

"I think it would be fair to say that because all of our centers are located in these traditionally underserved communities, we're hopeful that these types of improvements or at least this information, will allow us to draw funding to our community centers and to continue to offer the programs that we're currently offering," Talley said.

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This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: Monroe City Council approves architect to revitalize parks, community centers