Disc golf
Disc-golf course siting and conditions.
The timeline
- January 16, 2025Villa Mora Dam Park approved; two years of dog park rules finally land
Six of seven board members met at City Hall and approved a design concept for a new neighborhood park on the old Villa Mora check-dam site. Staff reported the dog park rules had finished a two-year review, and a member of the public asked the board to raise the pickleball attendance cap at Meerscheidt from 44 to about 50.
- November 16, 2023Two vacant seats, one subcommittee paused, and December cancelled
With Districts 1 and 5 vacant and District 3 absent, the board voted to delay the community outreach subcommittee's report until it has a full board, cancelled the December meeting for want of action items, and tabled the dog park rules to January 18, 2024. The sports field usage committee created in October has not met yet.
- September 21, 20233,000 kids, four fields, and fifteen years without a new soccer complex
C. W. Ward of the Las Cruces Youth Soccer Association told the board the league has roughly 3,000 kids and 428 coaches on four fields, has lost fields since a 2012 swap with the school district, and was removed from the joint use agreement around 2014. Board Member Coppedge said he is interested in a committee to further address inequities with youth soccer, and it will be placed on another agenda. Staff also returned with the trail education plan requested in August and reported four locations where trail signage has been removed, but not by staff.
- August 17, 2023Dirt bikes on the non-motorized trails, and no money to enforce anything
Vice-Chair Engle reported a dirt motorcycle riding from Jason Jiron Park up the berm and onto trails that are supposed to be non-motorized. Staff listed signage, volunteers, barriers and education as the available approaches and said there are no significant funds for enforcement, that the wayfinding plan that would supply the rule signage has no funding to implement, and that bollards do not stop motorcycles. Staff agreed to bring an education plan to next month's meeting.
- July 20, 2023A $27.5 million Parks budget, five new full-time positions, and no public comment
Staff presented the FY24 Parks and Recreation budget: $19,442,397 in the General Fund and $27,464,154 in total once special revenue, legislative funding, grants and capital projects are added. The board also heard a 4th of July recap estimating 7,000 people at the parade and 20,000 on the NMSU campus, and was told a Parks and Recreation director has been recommended from outside the City.
- April 20, 2023A fee schedule passes by acclamation with its language still to be written
The board approved the 2023-2024 Fees and Charges and Facility Use Policy "with language added regarding bathroom use and field rental process" — language that did not yet exist when the vote was taken. A motion to table the item to May died, and the reason given on the record was that the policy is already in the queue for City Council in May. Public Participation: "There was none."
- November 17, 2022A light pole falls at Harty, and the board names a course "The Big Enchilada"
Staff reported that a 30-year-old light pole delaminated and fell during a softball tournament at Harty Ballfields, missing an umpire and closing the facility pending testing of the remaining 17 poles. The board voted to recommend "The Big Enchilada" as the name of the city's new disc golf course and cancelled its December meeting. Staff outlined a proposed tree ordinance and the roughly $7 million Parks received from the 2022 GO Bond.
- Motion carried unanimously — Take this item off the table.
- Motion carried unanimously — Approve the naming of the Disc Golf Course to "The Big Enchilada".
- September 15, 2022New pool, new prices, and the end of Frenger — the board sets rates for a 50-meter pool that will not pay for itself
The board approved fees and operating hours for the Natatorium, the city's new 50-meter pool opening early January 2023, and accepted staff's recommendation to close Frenger pool when it does. Staff presented El Paso's numbers as the benchmark: $70,000 in revenue against operations over a million. The naming of a new disc golf course was tabled to October.
- Motion carried unanimously (roll call: Coppedge aye, Montgomery aye, Raish aye, Engle aye, McClure aye) — Table naming the disc golf course to the October 20th meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.
- August 16, 2022The board kills the Veterans Park renaming on purpose — tabled indefinitely so no precedent attaches
The Veterans Advisory Board's vice-chair asked for one more delay, then said the group is not so much seeking a name change as a change in the park's usage. The board tabled the item indefinitely, with a member stating on the record that a vote would set a precedent against any future renaming. Staff separately disclosed that the Assistant City Manager had stopped permitting Veterans Memorial Park as of August 12.
- July 21, 2022Veterans want a designation, not a playground — and the director tables the name change to go ask them why
The board tabled the renaming of Veterans Memorial Park to August after the Parks & Recreation director said she had not been part of the earlier conversations and wanted to put questions to the Veterans Advisory Board first. The Veterans Advisory Board's vice-chair told the board the group wants a special-use designation rather than a name change. Three of seven seats were filled.
- June 16, 2022The park where the playground is already scheduled to disappear
The Veterans Advisory Board asked this board to recommend that Veterans Memorial Park be designated a special use park and renamed "Veterans Memorial." Board members learned during the discussion that the adopted master plan already removes the playground, and tabled the item to July 21, asking to see the master plan and the LCPD vandalism reports first. Staff then presented a $28,040,752 FY23 budget.
- May 26, 2022"Next week he will file a discrimination thing with the City"
A former board member told the board that disabled veterans cannot use the Apodaca pickleball courts because there is no restroom and an 8.1% grade, that he would file a discrimination complaint the following week, and that the city wastes roughly a third of its GO Bond money by issuing RFPs instead of bidding work. The board then approved a $8,000 crosswalk-art project whose preparations had already begun and whose press release had already gone out.