The Recreation Park Board’s executive committee, with six members present, met last Thursday evening, July 28 and discussed a variety of topics ranging from the July 4th Celebration, the ongoing 127 Yard Sale, and softball tournaments.

Board members were first presented the treasurer’s report, which highlighted revenues and expenditures related to the recent 4th of July Celebration and fireworks show at the park.

Although the event was hampered to a large extent by the rains and storms, not to mention a shorter than expected fireworks display, there were some positives to the event, including the inflatables that were used by the kids and the musical performance by Borderline and the first ever “Patriot Walk.”

The board opted to have chairman Vince Ostertag, prior to paying the bill for the fireworks show, ask the company if they would consider taking some off the price since the show was limited and the actual finale did not go off until several minutes after most spectators thought the show was over and had already left the park.

Also, the car show was cancelled and it is unlikely that it will be rescheduled for this year.

After the overview of the July 4 events, the board discussed the ongoing U.S. 127 Outdoor Corridor Sale, as the park is usually one of the busiest and most visited areas of the county during the long sale weekend.

Park director Bobby Reneau said several booth spaces had already been rented, as well as most locations in the Farmer’s Market building as of late last week. More vendors were expected to select a spot prior to the sale, with some vendors setting up as early as Monday and Tuesday of this week.

The official sale weekend period is Thursday through Sunday, August 4-7.

Even though the primary summer season at the park is winding down, visitors will continue to use the park right up until cold weather, and there will also be some softball tournaments held prior to the end of September.

The annual Bowlyguard Benefit Tournament will be held sometime in mid-September and the board granted permission for another co-ed softball tournament to be held in late August or early September, as well as a tournament to benefit the Burkesville 8U girls’ team, which recently won the regional tournament and will advance to the Babe Ruth World Series tournament later this fall in Florida.

Board treasurer Gina Poore then recommended the board consider making Mountain View Park smoke free, saying it would be in line with the Healthy Hometown Coalition program and also noted that cleaning cigarette butts from around the park took a lot of work, not to mention the health aspects to children who frequent the park.

Some board members, however, questioned the legal aspect of banning smoking in an outdoor environment, as well as actually being able to enforce such a measure.

Poore noted that some other parks she frequented had smoking bans and would check on how those bans work in other locations.

No action was taken on the recommendation since there was not enough regular members to constitute a quorum. However, the proposal is likely to be revisited at a later time.

The next regular meeting of the Recreation Park Board is scheduled for Thursday, August 25 at 6 p.m. at the park and is open to the public.