News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville City Council members want to think big when it comes to the next phase of the city’s parks and recreation facilities.
Council Member Mark Miller said attracting visitors to the community should be the number one focus of the city’s ten-year recreation plan.
Cookeville City Council members reviewed the recommendations of Nashville-based Kimley-Horn Monday afternoon. Mayor Ricky Shelton said the city has lost some ground to other cities across the state building recreational facilities.
“We had a great SportsPlex that was built many, many years ago and I think that was the start of that,” Shelton said. “Not that there’s anything wrong with ours, now there are many facilities that are much, much more inclusive and broad with turf fields and things like that.”
Council Member Laurin Wheaton said the city needs a large multi-purpose facility to host volleyball, basketball, soccer, pickleball and other sports. Wheaton said such a facility would feature 12, 15, 16 courts. She said the city needs to think creatively to squeeze every ounce of use from the facility.
“I’ve got parents coming to me, I’ve got volleyball coaches coming to me and saying ‘We’d love to start this kind of stuff, we’d love tournaments here,’ they’ve got layouts, plans,” Wheaton said. “You’ve got people in the community who really want this, and they’re even talking about public-private partnership.”
City Manager James Mills said one of the priorities should be looking at land possibilities in the city for an aquatic facility or a multi-use facility. Shelton said he would like a piece of land that already has access where roads do not need to be built.
Council Member Eric Walker said he wants to see the facilities built downtown. Walker said he thinks the extra cost of downtown facilities would be worth it.
“It’s extra money spent, there’s no doubt about that, but that investment builds downtown growth, builds your energy in a downtown area,” Walker said.
Shelton and Wheaton both referenced possible public private partnerships to help fund recreation facilities. Wheaton said the city should also meet with the school system to see how the two can work together. Miller also said he would like the staff to consider sports and activities that are not serviced elsewhere in Tennessee.
“I think we actually need some actionable items to get moving forward here,” Miller said. “We’ve been sitting here talking about having an aquatic center for years but never voted on anything, and we have put the feasibility study in the budget so hopefully we can get engineering completed as well this year. That’s a huge step forward in that process.”
Mills said he wanted to see the extension of the Rail Trail to Cane Creek Park as part of the 10-year plan. The first draft included the extension of the trail to Monterey, but Mills said that would mostly be a county project.
Citizen input on the ten-year plan continues through Monday, June 7th. Kimley-Horn developed the plan using citizen input, the city’s 2030 plan, the Envision Cookeville outreach and other documents. The master plan will be used as a working plan to develop the city’s recreational future.
