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Nov 20, 2023

Yancey Park restroom sinks 'shattered into pieces,' while cleaner bathrooms top list on survey

According to Searcy Planning and Development Director Richard Stafford,

According to Searcy Planning and Development Director Richard Stafford, engineering firm Crafton Tull and the city is "about midway through" preparing Searcy's 20-year master plans. Speaking at the input meeting Tuesday night at the Rialto Theater, Stafford said, "We’ve done our active transportation public meeting, the second one. This is our second parks one and we’ll have another infrastructure one and then we will have the final presentation to the public." Also pictured are Julie Kelso, vice president of planning for Crafton Tull, and Dick Horton, who spoke on park system maintenance.

Respondents on the first survey taken for the 20-year parks plan being developed by engineering firm Crafton Tull for the city of Searcy gave having cleaner restrooms as their No. 1 concern about parks facilities. However, recent vandalism at the restrooms at Yancey Park illustrate some of the challenges the city faces in maintaining the buildings.

Crafton Tull got a little more than 1,400 responses to the first survey, which was a public interest survey, said Julie Kelso, vice president of planning for the firm, at a public input meeting held Tuesday night at the Rialto Theater.

Respondents also said that one of the things that kept people from using the parks was inefficient security. Dick Horton, a career parks and recreation professional who also spoke at the meeting, said he was not surprised by that. He said years ago, you would not even ask a question about security but now it is a new era with security being a top concern.

"If you don't see any mothers and children at a park, it is not a safe park," Horton said.

According to Searcy Police Department Lt. Todd Wells, vandalism at the parks "isn't uncommon," although he said it is "not an everyday occurrence, either."

The latest vandalism was damage to the men's and women's restroom sinks at Yancey Park, which was discovered the morning of May 29 at around 2:30 a.m., Wells said. The officer locking the restrooms found that the sinks "were shattered into pieces on the floor." As of Friday, boarded counters remained in place of the sinks at the restrooms.

"The Yancey Parks sinks are in the process of being fixed," Parks and Recreation Director Mike Parsons said. "We’re building countertops that will hopefully stop the vandalism of the sinks. The bathrooms are open but we’re still fixing that."

The city also posted on its Facebook page Thursday that baby changing stations have been installed at the Carmichael Community Center and in bathrooms at some of the city parks.

The city only recently reopened the Spring Park restrooms after someone shoved paper towels and toilet paper down the toilets and flushed, Parsons said, causing plumbing issues that had to be repaired.

Wells said the police department tries to protect the restrooms by locking them "as close to closing [11 p.m.] as possible, but many times officers are responding to a high volume of calls for service and it's not done until later. In some cases, supervisors anticipating a busy call night will lock the bathrooms even earlier that 11 p.m. such as 9 p.m."

Wells said the department encourages anyone who sees someone damaging property at any city parks to call the police immediately.

Manpower also was brought up concerning Parks and Recreation during Tuesday's input meeting.

Horton said has talked to Parsons, Mayor Mat Faulkner and Facilities Manager Will Walker about their thoughts on the park system and interviewed several community people.

"We have 22,540 man hours available right now every year, applied to the care of the park system," he said. "We have full-time folks and we have three seasonal folks as well. Twenty-five percent of those annual hours are spent outside of the parks system normal maintenance duties, helping do things like Christmas lights, the skating rinks, helping with sporting events, etc."

He said that while "all that is OK," you have to look at that 25 percent of the budget and "what you can do to get to a higher level."

What: Having cleaner restrooms top response on first survey about parks

When: Survey results revealed Tuesday at community input meeting

Results: Security being inefficient also top concern, according to Dick Horton, career parks and recreation professional

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