Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting.

The committee spent most of the evening on Eagles Landing Park and put off deciding its own priorities for the year.

Project manager Bhavi Joshi took the committee through the park, a 56-acre site with a 100,000 square foot recreation center, two picnic shelters, a restroom building and a renovated maintenance barn. The amenities list runs to a splash pad of about 7,000 square feet, an outdoor playground, two multipurpose fields, six pickleball courts, two sand volleyball courts, two basketball courts, an all-wheels skate park, accessible trails and a mile-long perimeter greenway loop. Construction started in June 2025 and completion is expected in 2027. Grading, erosion control and utilities are progressing, the parking and greenway sub-base, asphalt, curb and gutter are finished, and the recreation building's precast gym panels are up with roof steel going in. Widening on Cass Holt Road and a new traffic signal at the northern entrance were said to be starting soon.

Director LeeAnn Plumer put six possible focus areas to the committee for 2026: input on major parks projects, sitting on a committee for a private development partnership at the North Main Athletic Complex and Mims Park, greenway connectivity, community engagement, events for the town's 150th anniversary, and feedback on performance measures. The committee asked to see previous years' lists before choosing and voted to take it up in February.

Members raised greenway lighting at Womble Park, where lights are sometimes off, and electric motorcycles on greenways, which one member wants kept off them. Council member Sarah Larson reported a new micro-transit service, the Hopper, at $2 a ride inside town limits and $4 in the extraterritorial jurisdiction, and said motorized bikes and scooters may go to the council retreat. The police advisory group reported theft and larceny rising against a low overall crime rate, and that the department is hiring someone with cryptocurrency experience to run workshops on cyber crime.

Staff reported the Bass Lake spillway expansion and the Sugg Farm nature playground and quarter-mile sensory trail complete, with a ribbon cutting at the community garden and nature play area set for 10 January. The department is a year or more into CAPRA accreditation, with a self-assessment due 15 January and an on-site review the week of 11 May; only 222 agencies in the country hold it.

How the votes went

Three votes, all unanimous. The November 2025 minutes were approved on a motion by Daniel Fenton, seconded by Jodi Carey. Fenton then moved, seconded by Carey, to carry the 2026 focus area decision to the February meeting. Carey moved to adjourn, seconded by Fenton. Members Melinda Walker, Will Ulmer and Karen McGowan were absent.

Who spoke

No members of the public spoke.

A public comment period was held and nobody spoke.

Read from the records the government published after the meeting. Members of the public are private residents and are not named or indexed.