Parks Board prepares for spring, announces youth advisory council

Feb. 9—Blake Vickers

The Richmond Parks Board's February meeting included updates on preparing for Parks and Recreation's spring-summer programming as well as the announcement of a youth advisory council at the Richmond Teen Center.

The meeting began with updates on construction efforts for the Armory and Goggins Lane park projects. During recent Parks Board and Richmond City Commission meetings, there has been much discussion around state-mandated fencing for parts of the park, as state law dictates there must be a locked fence around the skate plaza at night.

There will be fencing around the skate plaza and the playground within the park, but no fencing surrounding the parameter of the park.

Bid packages for excavation on the Goggins Lane park are set to go out in late March or early April.

The maintenance department will be working to re-strap chairs at Paradise Cove in the coming weeks and will start mowing next month as the weather changes. The diving board at Paradise Cove has also been refurbished. Some minor updates on slides at the park will also take place before it reopens.

Over at Adventure Falls, which is set to reopen on April 1, new batting machines will be installed, along with new carpet at the batting cages. Training for employees at Adventure Falls will begin in March.

Upcoming seasonal positions have also opened.

"We have had more people apply for seasonal positions in the past two weeks, than we've ever had ever before," said Parks and Rec. Director Erin Moore. "There are over 100 applicants for the different positions. Some of those applicants are the same applicant for different jobs, so I think it's more like 60 people that have applied so far for our department. That's more than last year."

Moore said the number of applicants for the positions is amazing, and associated the development on marketing and the use of the job-posting site Indeed.

Work is already underway for the parks department's annual Fourth of July event. A bid package for the event's firework vendor will be sent to the city commission for final approval. Musicians are being scheduled for the event, which is set to take place on Tuesday, July 4.

Planning is also underway for the return of Tasty Tuesdays. Applications for food vendors and musicians will be closing soon. According to assistant program coordinator Lauren Kilburn, 30 applications for food vendors have already been received. Tasty Tuesdays will run from April to September.

Following a visit from State Representative and Richmond native Keturah Herron and Mayor Robert Blythe, the Richmond Teen Center has started a youth advisory council.

"They do that on Thursdays, and they take it pretty seriously... They have some pretty good ideas. We are gonna take a trip to city hall to get a tour and sit in on a city commission meeting, and then take a second trip to city hall to present the youth vision for Richmond at a commission workshop meeting," said Kilburn.