Work study on Payson community center Aug 3 paysonroundup.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from paysonroundup.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
An ambitious plan to build a community center with a covered pool received a boost from Payson Mayor Tom Morrissey when he asked an audience of 91 at the April 6 Tea Party meeting to give the project a chance.
âThe main thing is to keep everything we can on the table as far as possibilities, not close our minds or doors based on subjects that are not realistic,â said Morrissey.
Morrisseyâs remarks represented a major change of heart with a proposal from the MHA Foundation to build a community center and year-round swimming complex and then turn it over to the town to operate.
Taylor Pool has been on life support for decades, but this week Payson Town Manager Troy Smith pulled the plug.
âWe are now in the condition where there are no more Band-Aid fixes,â Smith told the council on Tuesday. âI do not believe opening the pool this year is an option. What I am saying to you, I am making the decision it is not safe and it cannot be opened. That is a decision I feel compelled to make.â
The council accepted the recommendation at the work study session without a vote.
Parks and Tourism Director Courtney Spawn in the meeting presented a list of the health and safety problems of the 36-year-old pool and concluded it would cost more to fix the pool than to build a new one.
The Payson Parks and Recreation Commission came to the Payson Town Council Feb. 11 meeting to ask for help.
Commission Vice Chair BJ Bollier opened with an upbeat presentation on the goals of the council appointed group then asked for the council to consider the parks budget when the next fiscal year budget is discussed.
A recent survey of Payson residents found most put a community center and more parks on the top of their capital improvement priority list for the town.
But Payson has no master plan for parks, confirmed Troy Smith, town manager.
No plan to make sure current parks have the infrastructure necessary to make improvements.
Project off Louisiana will double the size of island in wildlife refuge
Work has begun off Louisiana on a project to more than double the size of an island in the nation’s second-oldest wildlife refuge.
The project will add 400 acres of new habitat for birds and animals on North Breton Island, which U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Taylor Pool said currently covers about 290 acres.
North Breton Island is at the southern end of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, created in 1904 by President Theodore Roosevelt on a 60-mile-long sweep of barrier islands. It’s the only refuge he ever visited, according to its website.