The Recreational Park Board, in a rare call meeting last Thursday, February 8, voted to hire a ‘part-time’ park employee, or seasonal director to help operate and maintain the park during the peak months of use in the spring, summer and early fall.

Board Chairman Wayne Glover called the meeting to discuss the situation with board members, nine of which were present, pertaining to the park director position.

Bobby Reneau, who had served as park director for some 19 years, retired last fall and during medical leaves prior to his retirement, the board opted to hire Michael Hood to work as maintenance person part-time at the park, a position he will continue to hold year-round.

Hood was also present at last week’s special meeting.

Under Reneau’s tenure as park director, his salary and benefits were paid in part by the Clinton County School System, one of the three entities that helps fund the park, with the park board paying the remainder of the salary.

Upon Reneau’s leaving, the school district is still making $2,500 quarterly allotments to the park, with both the city and county paying $15,000 each per year in four installments annually, as well as other in-kind services.

Board member Paula Little, in reiterating her stance from last fall, said she felt the park board could not afford to hire a full-time director with benefits and recommended they hire work to be done on an as-needed basis and for whatever amount was financially possible to pay to keep the park maintained.

All board members agreed the park board, due to limited funds, could not afford to pay a full-time director with benefits as in the past when the park board director was also a school district employee.

After quite a lot of discussion, Glover made a motion to hire someone part-time on a six month basis at $12 per hour with an hours per month time limit to work.

It was noted that whomever is hired may put in 40 hours some weeks during busy times and no more than 10 or 12 at other times when no little league games are ongoing.

The motion by Glover was to advertise for the part-time position, with the specifications to include hours to be worked per month, rate of pay, length of time and a description of what is expected of the part-time worker.

Hood will continue to do maintenance and upkeep at the park part-time as in the past and the park has received a lot of compliments on how the park is being kept up in recent months, but there are a lot of areas of work needed in the coming year.

On a motion by Little, the board also voted to have the Mountain View Park sign at the entrance to the park repaired and board members Kelly Harmon and Adam Davidson volunteered to get estimates to have the work done on the sign.

The board also voted to allow Little League to operate concessions on the same payment terms as they did during the 2017 season.

With Little League season just weeks away now, the board also discussed the issues with the dugouts and the need for them to be either repaired or replaced in the future, as well as other building and grounds issues.

They also discussed having softball tournaments at the park and splitting proceeds between the little league and park board.

The next regular meeting of the Recreation Park Board is scheduled for next Thursday, February 22 at 6 p.m. at the park and is open to the public.