By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The City of Grayson Tourism Commission met in regular session last Tuesday, August 12, to discuss business including the sports park and Blue Goose building. New sports park manager, Bert Bayes, who had just recently completed his second week in that position, reported to the commission concerning recent events at the park.
“We had one event on the second and the third,” Bayes told the commission. “It was an adult softball tournament.”
Teams were men’s, women’s, and coed. Bayes said the crowd was not huge, so sales at the concession were somewhat down as opposed to other events. There were no events of the same type the previous week, Bayes said. But the splashpad was rented out three times during that time period.
“This coming weekend we will be having a baseball tournament,” he said. “I’m told that baseball this time of year does not draw the way it normally would. But we are excited for next weekend because we are expecting to have over 1,000 people at the park. There will be 39 teams coming and we will use all four fields plus the high school field for all three days starting on Friday.”
“That should have a huge turnout, and after that we have events scheduled every weekend through the end of October,” Bayes told the commission. “We have a full plate, and should have good crowds the rest of the fall.”
Commission member Deana Miller discussed with the commission the possibility of getting banners for the sports park that would list the hours of operation, etc. Miller said that she had been asked numerous times about the hours, with residents frequently asking about the splash pad in particular. Commission member Shadow Skaggs proposed an alternative in the form of more permanent signage that could be changed and updated as necessary.
The commission requested that Bayes look into potential options to improve public communication and bring it before the commission by their next regularly scheduled meeting. The director was also encouraged to bring potential capital projects to the commission so these could be planned accordingly.
Miller also told the commission that demolition of the Blue Goose Building had officially gone out to be bid.
“We had the asbestos survey done,” Miller told the commission. “They did find a little bit of asbestos in the caulk in the front window.”
“We will be having an open house from 9 to 11 on Tuesday,” she continued. “It’s not a mandatory meeting, and I’ll just have it open for two hours. And then next Friday (August 22) there will be an open bid at 2 pm.”
Miller said she was looking forward to receiving bids for demolition, and had shared the information with utilities director Gerald Haney so that he could in turn share the same with his list of contractors.
“We won’t be approving a bid on that Friday because we have to check and be sure the bids are responsive to our requirements. It will probably be the following Monday before we can contact the low bid contractor,” she told the commission.
“In the meantime, there was a lot of stuff left in the Blue Goose,” Miller said.
It is imperative, Miller told the commission, that these items be removed.
“Once we sign the contract, everything in that building belongs to the contractor. It becomes their property at that point,” she told the commission.
Miller said at that point no one would be able to go back into the building to retrieve any items left there.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
