Trails and Parks Closed Due to Flooding

It's really going to be nice to write something that doesn't involve rain, but unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be the case for a while.

As of Monday morning, the MKT Trail, Bear Creek Trail and the Hinkson Creek Trail all have significant water over the trail. Users should not attempt to use these areas until the water has receded and park crews are able to assess and repair the damage.

Additionally, the Twin Lakes Recreation Area is closed due to water over the entry road. The Bear Creek Nature Trail, located in the back or north end of Cosmo Park, has water over multiple sections of the trail.

Unfortunately, this doesn't just impact public recreation areas. Flooding has temporarily closed the Perche Creek Golf Course including the driving range, batting cages and go-carts. Wilson's indoor soccer facility located off of Forum Blvd has several feet of water in the facility and appears to be closed until further notice.

Check out the video from KMIZ-TV's Brynn Gingras on the flood's impact.

Rainbow Softball Center Pitching/Batting Cages

Thanks to some vandals that just want to destroy something for the pure excitment of destruction, the Rainbow Softball Center pitching/batting cages are closed indefinitely.

Sometime from 11:00 pm Saturday night, Aug 23 to 8:00 am Monday, Aug 25, vandals destroyed the central elevator, distribution pipes and all related wires. It's a wonder they didn't receive an electrical shock!!! Unfortunately, just to replace the elevator alone is going to cost nearly $5,000 so the department is looking at options.

What do you think we should do?

1. Replace and repair what is needed to get it operational. Estimated cost $5,000.

2. Renovate the cage and replace the elevator, pitching machines and coin boxes. The existing equipment is about 13-14 years old. Estimated cost: $18,000

3. Add batting cages similar to what is found at Antimi and American Legion. No pitching machines, just let teammates pitch to each other.

4. Do nothing.

A few comments: Over the last 10 years (1998-2008), the machines generated a total of $57,984 in revenue and had about $14,000 in expenses. This resulted in a profit of $43,984 for the 10 year period. The machines do generate revenue.....as long as they're working!!!

Let us know what you think!

Thursday Night (8/28/08) Storm Damage

Mother Nature is certainly at it again. Thursday night's rain and high winds certainly caused us some problems. Throughout the day on Friday, reports kept coming in regarding trees and limbs on playgrounds, roads, trails and parks.

The photo above is at Stephens Lake Park where a limb fell on a portion of the Gordon Shelter Playground.

As bad as it is to lose a tree and some limbs, the messy problems were with the trash cans and port-a-pots blowing over and spilling their contents all over the parks. I think Cosmo Park took the worst hit in this regard. Nearly every trash can and portable toilet got blown over. Thank goodness we rent the port-a-pots and don't have to clean those!

Anyway, thank you to everyone who called in to report problems. This really helps us keep our crews moving as we don't have to spend a lot of time inspecting every park. By 7:30 am on Friday, we already knew about several problem areas all as a result of citizen assistance. Remember, the number to call and report any park problems is 573-874-7201. Program that number in your cell-phone!