More than half of Starkville’s eight public parks are in poor condition and only Fire Station Park, which serves as home to the Greater Starkville Development Partnership-managed Starkville Community Market, received an excellent designation, according to an assessment produced by Dalhoff Thomas Design Studio.
Dalhoff Thomas’ report evaluated each location on a 3-point scale. Parks given a 1 are in poor condition, and the report suggests their elements need to be considered for removal or replacement. A 2-point score carries a “good” designation, while a 3-point score reflected no need for repairs or replacement.
Five parks — George Evans (1.93), Josey (1.33), McKee (1.78), Moncrief (1.45) and Westside/J.L. King Senior Memorial (1.70) — all received sub-2 point scores, while Patriot’s Park (2) and the Sportsplex (2.31) both received “good” designations.
Fire Station Park earned a perfect 3-point rating.
Dalhoff Thomas’ master plan for the Starkville Parks and Recreation Department is expected to come before aldermen this month.
Confronting maintenance issues is heavily emphasized in the plan, and Mayor Parker Wiseman said he hopes tending to those problems will revitalize Starkville’s parks.
Proposed changes
Tier 1 proposals — short-term goals and projects Dalhoff Thomas recommends funding and completing in the next 18 months — include hiring a maintenance manager to reorganize operations, creating a park advisory board of community volunteers invested in the system’s success, controlling unauthorized use of athletic fields and lights and reviewing opportunities to contract out services.
Tier 2 recommendations (19-36 months) include funding additional maintenance personnel and replacing aged and outdated playground equipment, while a Tier 3 proposal (37-49 months) suggests SPRD should function under a detailed parks maintenance management plan.
A maintenance director position has not yet been created by the city, but Mayor Parker Wiseman estimated the position’s salary could run $40,000-$80,000 annually.
“The picture you get is that none of our parks are in a state of utter disrepair, but most of them need additional maintenance improvements,” said Mayor Parker Wiseman. “When you get to the finer details of park maintenance, that’s where that position becomes critically important. It’s a heavy lift. There’s no guarantee that makes it into the budget, but I would advise it does make it because we’re trying to stay on schedule with the plan.”
Money previously earmarked for paying late electric bills could be used to absorb the cost of salary and benefits for a new maintenance director, said Wiseman.
“One of the recommendations in the section that talks about maintenance is a detailed inventory of all issues associated with (SPRD). That’s something we’ll expect our staff to do in the event we don’t get a new maintenance manager,” he said. “It is a much more obtainable to meet (a higher standard of maintenance) as an objective if we are adequately staffed from a maintenance standpoint. In the opinion of our consultants, we are not adequately staffed right now.”
Satisfying short-term goals will allow the city to be in position for long-term capital improvement projects, he said. Those recommendations, which include expanding the park system, will be easier to satisfy if “the city lays the right foundation,” Wiseman said.
Future growth
Dalhoff Thomas’ draft states Starkville’s current park system will only provide about half of the acreage needed to support the city’s projected 2020 population and needs to add about 150 acres to meet the demands of the next two decades.
The draft recommends the city develop a large community park in southeast Starkville, two mini-parks north and south of Highway 12 and four neighborhood parks around the city’s northern, western and southern peripheries in order to meet the demand.
Developing these facilities and utilizing space-sharing agreements with Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District playgrounds will allow SPRD to cover a majority of areas zoned for residential development, planners said last month.
Fire Station, Josey and Patriot’s parks are all “mini-parks,” that are 1 acre or less in size and are meant to service less than a one-fourth mile radius. George Evans (2.5 acres) and Moncrief (7.5 acres) are “neighborhood parks,” which are meant to serve a one-fourth to one-half mile radius. McKee and Westside/J.L. King Senior Memorial parks are “community parks,” which are meant to serve two or more neighborhoods from a one-half to a 3-mile radius.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.