City Council Preview – December 3, 2013
Tuesday’s City Council meeting will begin with a Work Session at 4pm, followed by the Regular Session at 6:30pm, all at our main City Hall at 215 E. McKinney Street. The full agenda and backup materials can be found here on the city website. Here are some items of interest…
THE FUTURE OF EUREKA PLAYGROUND
If you have kids or are one yourself, you have no doubt spent considerable time playing on the magical, castle-like structure of Eureka Playground at Southlakes Park. This park was designed, created, and funded by a group of volunteers 20 years ago. At the time of its creation, it was known that this sort of park would have an approximate lifespan of 20 years. Because maintenance issues continue to grow and the Denton Parks Foundation has indicated an interest in fundraising for a new playground, it is time to begin thinking about its future. We will be discussing options moving forward. If this interests you, please chime in!
Or perhaps you’ve noticed an increase in very enthusiastic teenage boys using this wooden structure to display their sweet Parkour skills. Perhaps we should learn something from these guys when we are deliberating the future of Eureka – SAVE PARKOUR N D PARK!!
HOTEL CONVENTION CENTER UPDATE
This will be our last update prior to a scheduled vote on the proposed agreement between the city, UNT, and O’Reilly Hospitality Management whereby the city will agree to fund a Convention Center connected to new (not city funded) Embassy Suites Hotel on the campus of UNT where the old Radisson Hotel used to stand. I gave a more significant update on its progress in my last council update along with a link to the Power Point Presentation given to council outlining many aspects of the proposed agreement. We are scheduled to vote on this agreement at the December 10 council meeting – a week from now.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN CONVENTION CENTER?
Some may be wondering whether or not it is a conflict of interest for me to be participating in Convention Center discussions and ultimately voting on the matter, given my employment status with the University of North Texas. Isn’t this a conflict of interest? As we started these conversations well over a year ago, I consulted our legal team’s advice on this very question. To be sure, as we are approaching a vote, I sought advice once more on my status. There exists a Texas Attorney General opinion from 1988 responding to a similar issue in San Marcos where a matter between the city and Texas State University called for city action and the majority of council members were employees of the university. You can read that opinion here. In it, the Attorney General argued that a public university (and other similar governmental entities) does not qualify as a “business entity” identified in the laws defining legal conflicts of interest. On my own initiative I’ve sought ought legal advice on this issue twice, I’ve received advice that there was no conflict, and I intend to fulfill my council duty by continuing to participate in this discussion and voting when the time comes. As much fun it is to speculate about backroom deals, secret handshakes, and kickbacks, I’m pretty sure my modest salary in my very mid-level administrative job at UNT will remain very modest and very mid-level even after this vote.
AMENDMENTS TO THE GAS WELL ORDINANCE
On October 29, we amended a section of the Fire Code to clarify the proper ordering of permits leading to the full permitting of a gas well drilling permit. We’ll be officially changing the Denton Development Code related to this. Doing so requires a process whereby the amendments go first to the Planning and Zoning Commission and then to City Council. This will help clarify that the Planning Department, not the Fire Marshall’s office, has the final authority in permitting gas drilling in the city.
A CANDLELIGHT VIGIL PROTEST AT CITY HALL
I’ve discovered that meetings that begin with civil protests are better than meetings that do not. As many of you know, the fracking issue continues to be a difficult issue in our community. Some local activists will apparently be on hand to express their opinion, according to this Facebook Event.
As always, let me know your questions or comments on any of these issues.
4 Comments
Mr. Roden, my young children are huge fans of Eureka Park. We have attended many playdates there and often meet up with school friends – sometimes as many as 20 different kids and siblings at a time. We would love to see a nice, large play structure and a large splash pad for the kids in the summertime (and much of the year). I hope that the play structure is as large as the one there now because so many kids in the community play there at the same time. The city has plenty of smaller playgrounds if people want one of those. A splash park would be a huge attraction for our city. I’ve seen other cities that have installed them and they are a first rate place for kids of all ages to play.
I’m not sure if the Parkour reference was serious or in jest. But, I see huge problems with that. The city opens itself up to serious liability if they encourage that. Sadly, there are times when we have to leave the playground because there are so many teenagers there using profanity, bad attitudes, rough play & sometimes drug use.
Thank you for your interest in our parks & playgrounds. They are invaluable avenues for getting people outside and active.
Thanks, Angela, for your thoughtful comments and suggestions. Yes, the Parkour aspect of this story was meant to be light-hearted. I’ve often seen this activity while there with my own kids – you are right, it doesn’t mix well with little kids. I just did a google search and found this and thought it funny.
If they do tear down Eureka Park, I think everyone would appreciate it if the replacement park was comparable in scale, quality, etc. None of the other Denton parks hold a candle to Eureka. It’s probably 500% bigger than the next largest park with a playground (Northlakes?).
If we’re just going to tear it down and replace it with something small like what’s at all the other parks (Bowling Green, McKenna, Nette Schultz, etc.) I’d rather we just keep it.
I would love for the city to rebuild the park at Eureka. My kids do enjoy that park, hiking trails and fishing pond however the treatment process for the wood concerns me. In the heat of summer there seems to be an odd smell at that playground and the structure itself seems to be sticky. Many teenagers also sit up in the structure smoking and drinking which concerns me.
I do have quite an opinion as well regarding the parkour/free running that is happening at Eureka and all of our Denton parks. On many occasions I have had to approach teenagers and UNT students concerning the safety of our kids while they are playing at Eureka, Northlakes and QUaker Town. Many students are also using our parks for crossfit work outs etc. which is also very frustrating. Clay and I had a long discussion the other night regarding this issue. How can we keep our parks safe for children and discourage free running and pullups/squats on our monkey bars and playgrounds?! I would love to be involved at any level in this issue and help our Denton parks become a better, safer place!