Recreation hot topic in WR

kriner@sunmulti.com

The Warner Robins City Council spent Friday in a work

session that covered a multitude of topics, the main one being recreation.

Council was given a first look at recreation director James

Dodson’s comprehensive plan and vision for the city’s parks.

As Dodson presented the plan to the council he noted that

these things would have to be done in phases.

The estimated $8.7 million plan includes two youth ball

fields, walking trails, a splash pad and picnic areas.

Councilman Mike Davis argued that only having two youth

fields wasn’t what he had envisioned; he seemed to very disappointed.

Davis said, “This is not going to draw people to Warner

Robins.” He noted that a true sports complex in which tournaments could be held

was what he envisioned.

Dodson said, “This is just my vision. You as council

can do with it what you want.”

It seemed to be a consensus between council members that the

Elberta Road land purchased by the council in January should be the site of the

youth sports complex.

“It should be something that brings people to our city for

tournaments and such,” Davis said.

Councilman Paul Shealy said he felt as though recreation

should be centered on making sure the city’s youth had plenty of parks before

trying to make money off of a park.

Other parks Dodson talked about were Memorial Park and updates

to Sewell, Fountain and Peavy parks.

Dodson said his vision for Memorial Park includes a 15-acre

expansion. The park would have three youth fields, a splash pad, a walking

trail and a horseshoe pit.

That park is estimated to cost $12.2 million.

Another issue discussed was compressed natural gas vehicles.

Monte Walters, utilities director, said the next 12 months

will hold a lot of decision making on whether or not to convert the Warner

Robins fleet to compressed natural gas.

Steve Sykes, the city manager of Thomasville, visited the

work session and gave a presentation on the cost savings and the benefits his

city is seeing as it is in the process of converting its sanitation fleet to

compressed natural gas.

Sykes said the City of Thomasville was spending $200,000 in

diesel but now that number is down to $75,000 with compressed natural gas.

“We want to save money, but we also want a cleaner, greener community,”

Sykes said.

Sykes noted one of the major changes for his employees with

the conversion is how they fill the trucks up. He said with the diesel trucks

you pull up to the pump and fill it up in 10 minutes. The compressed natural

gas trucks take four to eight hours to fill up. Sykes said they fill them up

overnight so that they are ready to roll the next morning.

Overall, the City of Thomasville expects a $300,000 savings

by converting the fleet to compressed natural gas.

Other issues discussed at the daylong retreat were:

redevelopment efforts, a new fire station, the 2001, 2006 and 2012 Special

Purpose Local Option Sales Tax and Houston County industrial development.

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