Commission encourage families to participate in Kids to Park Day

Saturday is national Kids to Parks Day and local entities are doing their part to promote outdoor play at city parks and other outdoor facilities in El Dorado.

Coordinated by the National Park Trust, Kids to Parks Day was launched in 2011 to celebrate “the great outdoors” and to connect children and families with their local, state and national parks and public lands. KTPD is held on the third Saturday in May each year. The El Dorado Parks and Playgrounds Commission is encouraging families to spend the day exploring city parks and other outdoor recreation and green space sites.

Ken Goudy, chairman of the EPPC, said the commission recently received information about KTPD 2018.

“It was a little late in the year to do something, but next year, maybe we can partner with a local organization to promote it and maybe have an event at a specific park,” Goudy said.

There are seven public parks in the city — Mattocks, Mosby, Mellor, Oakhurst, Neel, Old City and Mitchell — with varying amenities, including playground equipment, water fountains, picnic tables, pavilions, basketball goals, tennis courts and walking/running tracks.

Mattocks is the only city park with a public swimming pool and fishing pond, and Mitchell has a dog enclosure with playground equipment for pets.

Bodenhamer Skate Park has a variety of skate features and obstacles, and the city’s walking/running trail on the north side of town attracts multiple users each day.

The trail wraps around Lions Club Municipal Golf Course and an adjacent basketball court at Martin Luther King and 19th streets.

The former McKinney Park on Beech Street was decommissioned as a city park years ago, but the city still maintains the grounds for green space.

The city also partners with Union County to provide the operation and maintenance budget for the El Dorado-Union County Recreation Complex, which has baseball and softball fields that are also used for soccer games and Pee Wee football practices.

Playground equipment, pavilions and RV sites also dot the grounds of the complex on Champagnolle Road.

Goudy said the EPPC and city are looking at ways to continue to improve city parks.

In 2015, the city launched a $300,000 project to install new equipment at several city parks, adding new features to some parks and replacing old, unsafe equipment at others.

Goudy pointed to efforts to improve outdoor restrooms at Lions Club and he said the commission is working with the Department of Public Works on the best way to install public restrooms at all city parks.

Plans are also in the works to extend the walking/ running trail.

Goudy said the EPPC is looking to the public on ideas to help improve city parks.

“Yeah, we want to know what people want, what they would like to see at our parks because we want people and kids to get out and use them,” he said, noting that 5 percent of the El Dorado Forward tax, the city’s onecent sales tax for economic development, is dedicated to recreation and outdoor facilities.

The EPPC meets at noon on the fourth Tuesday of each month in the Council Chamber of City Hall. Commissioners will not meet this month because at

least two will be out of town, Goudy said.

Anyone who has ideas on city parks may call Goudy at 870-863-6200 or City Clerk Heather McVay at 870-881-4877. MAD Playscape

KTPD is not lost on Murphy Arts District, who coordinated the opening of its new children’s playscape with the national celebration on Saturday.

A grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 8:20 a.m. and gates will open at 9 a.m., said Bob Tarren, chief marketing officer for MAD.

Concessions will open at 11 a.m.

Tarren said MAD thought the May 19 opening was perfect timing on a nationally recognized day that encourages outdoor play, adding that the playscape will bring something new to El Dorado for families and children.

“We were aware of (KTPD). Of course, you don’t know with construction if things are going to work perfectly, but we thought it seemed like good synergy,” he said.

The completion of the playscape is the final component

of phase one for the development of MAD. The facility accompanies the MAD amphitheater, Griffin Restaurant and Music Hall and a reconfiguration of Oil Heritage Park.

Phase two includes a renovation and expansion of the Rialto Theater and adjacent space for an art gallery.

Located next to First United Methodist Church, the playscape features playground equipment for children of all ages — slides, ropes, tunnels, ladders, a giant razorback slide and a zip line.

The water feature, which Tarren called the "pièce de résistance” of the playscape, is a large splash pad with water cascading from imitation pine trees and an oil derrick. Children will also be able to play in sprays from water jets that are set in the ground.

Tarren said that many of the plants and other decorative elements onsite are native to Arkansas — features that will encourage further exploration of nature and the outdoors, which is the purpose of KTPD.

The opening of the playscape has been highly anticipated throughout the community and Tarren said MAD is hoping

to attract its fair share of out-of-town visitors.

“There’s a lot of energy around it, and people have expressed excitement. People have asked questions about the specifics, and we have tried to answer those questions on our website and in (ads that have appeared in the News-Times),” Tarren said. “We’ve tried to give a sense of what to expect for something that has never been in El Dorado before.”

Across from the playscape, Farmers Market at MAD will be open from 8 a.m. until noon on Saturday. Farmers and vendors will sell a variety of goods, including produce, meat, herbs, bedding plants, baked goods, jams and jellies, canned products, homemade items, and locally-made honey.

“We fully support everything to improve family life in El Dorado. Quality of life is very important to us,” Tarren said.

For more information about the MAD Playscape and Farmers Market, visit www.eldomad.com.