The existing park board in Diamond is now under the city’s umbrella.
During Monday night’s Diamond City Council meeting, council members appointed two new members to the existing board. They are Brian Navarro and Jeannie McBride.
Navarro and McBride join current park board members Alisha Bryant, Vicky Wright (president) and Jessica Riter.
“They will oversee expenditures on parks,” Diamond Mayor Steve Carter said about the main duty of the park board. “They will decide on what they want and what they think the park needs and then they will present that to the council for a vote. The council controls the money there. Mainly recommendations from that board to the city on where they want to go and what they want to do with the park.”
On Aug. 3, Diamond voters approved a one-half cent sales tax for storm water and parks.
Currently, there are two parks in Diamond: One on Highway 59 across the road from Diamond High School, ,and the other one is on Charles and Maple Streets. The one on Highway 59 is more of a roadside park with a couple of pavilions, picnic tables and a helicopter pad. The main park lies between Charles and Maple Streets (near the housing authority). It is about three acres. Some trees were planted there a few years ago for beautification.
In the past, the park board has received donations for parks.
“They had donations coming in and they have an account of their own,” Carter said. “What will happen now is that they will take those donation monies and put them in this new account that we are opening. And then our tax money will go in there, but they will know how much money is in there…”
Carter noted the other council members are happy the sales tax issue passed.
“They think that it is a good deal, and they all really wanted this to pass and they are tickled to death that it did pass,” he said. “We just did not have any money to put in the parks fund. This tax, over a long period of time, will give us plenty of money to do things in the park, and in a few years, we will have some really, really nice parks in Diamond.”
