Veterans Memorial Park
A park where a playground appears in the master plan and veterans objected to one on the record, in the same meeting.
The timeline
- December 11, 2025Ten projects in one sitting, and a gazebo whose lights nobody will claim
With no action items on the agenda, the board heard fall and winter athletics numbers from Meerscheidt and a staff walk-through of ten capital projects, from Apodaca Park's aquatic playground to a three-acre park proposed on the west side of Villa Mora Dam. Public comment concerned missing lights at the Pioneer Women's Park gazebo.
- March 20, 2025A pole that passed inspection fell at Maag — and every "safe" pole is now in question
Six of seven board members met for a meeting with no action items and no public participation. Director Steven Bingham reported that a light pole at Maag Park that had been scanned and deemed safe fell, which he said brought into question the credibility of any and all of the poles that were deemed safe; the city used emergency purchase powers and closed Ron Galla Park and Apodaca Softball.
- September 19, 2024Dog park rules get teeth after attacks at Hermosa — and a 70% veto clause
Staff brought the board a rewritten set of dog park rules, prompted by what the record calls a lot of dog attacks at Hermosa Park, and said that if 70% or more of the community is against them Parks and Rec would return to the drawing board. The board took no action items, and no one spoke at public participation.
- August 15, 2024A summer counted: 70,000 pool visits, 19,000 meals, and no action items
Six of seven board members heard summer program numbers from three staff presenters and a rundown of parks under construction. The agenda carried no action items, and no member of the public spoke at public participation.
- April 18, 2024Park rangers, $2.55 million for two parks, and half the playgrounds over 20 years old
Director Steven Bingham laid out a budget request built on four priorities, including bringing back park rangers as Police Aides to monitor the skate park and higher-crime areas. Staff also presented the near-final Grindline design for the new skate park at the East Mesa Sports Complex and a ten-year wayfinding signage plan that will do ten parks at a time.
- 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.
- March 16, 2023A finished dog park nobody can open, and a maintenance bill nobody budgeted
Two members of the public pressed the board on the Rinconada dog park, built but padlocked because it cannot be accepted separately from the Animal Services Center. Staff walked through an FY24 budget request that includes three new positions and over $750,000 in vehicles and equipment, and a board member asked why new facilities keep coming online without a maintenance component. The parks deputy director answered with the count: 50 full-time staff for roughly 148 park areas, 60 playgrounds, 40 miles of trails and 33 ballfields.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Motion carried unanimously (roll call: Engle aye, Schuller aye, McClure aye) — Table the renaming of Veterans Memorial Park to the August 18th meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.
- 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.
- Motion carried unanimously — Table this action item until the July 21st meeting.
- 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.
- April 21, 2022Cricket players, dog walkers and a shooting club fill the room
A three-member board with four vacant seats took eight public speakers, then approved the 2021/2022 fees and facility use policy, master plans for Branigan, Gomez and Frenger parks, and the final design for the Pioneer Women's Park gazebo. Staff confirmed Frenger Pool is proposed for removal and would not pass inspection if the new 50-meter pool were online.
- May 20, 2021"The City of Las Cruces basically has blatantly lied" — a Cool Corridor complaint, and a $2.4 million parking lot
The board met by Zoom webinar with five of seven seats present and no action items on the agenda. A member of the public told the board the Nevada Cool Corridor's costs had grown past what the city stated and that 60% of its plant life had been replaced; the director said she would bring back a full report on the project. Consultants presented a 95%-complete design for the Veterans Memorial Park parking lot and pavilion.
- March 18, 2021Fifty staff to fifty-seven, and acres added every year: the maintenance math
Held via Zoom webinar. Staff presented the maintenance impact of adding a new facility, reporting parks staffing has gone from 50 to 57 since 2008 while eight positions lost in the recession were never recovered. A second presentation covered splash pad water systems, including that a splash pad costs about $550,000 and that the city's one flow-through pad uses over 2.5 million gallons a year. Capital projects presented total just over $24 million.
- February 18, 2021GO Bond program at 26% on time, and the District 5 park gets a number: $675,000
Held via Zoom webinar. Public Works reported the GO Bond park program is 26% on time and 32% on cash, with Apodaca courts due in May and demolition started at Young Park. Staff said the new District 5 park has a funding source of approximately $675,000 from the Philippou settlement. Board members reported that three City Councilors each described the resolution as a one-off.
- January 21, 2021A park by resolution: the board asks what happens when Council skips it
Held via Zoom webinar. A resident objected that a City Council resolution to buy land and build a park in District 5 bypassed the board's normal process, and the board spent most of the meeting on what that precedent would cost. Staff said park impact fees are the only backup funding source and cannot be used for maintenance at all. No action items were on the agenda.
- November 19, 2020A resident asks where $2.2 million went, and the board gets the whole budget — an $18 million department with closed facilities
Meeting by Zoom with all Parks & Recreation facilities closed under the Public Health Order, the board heard a resident question the accounting on the Nevada Cool Corridor and got the Public Works director's answer on the record. Staff then walked the board through the entire FY21 budget — $11 million in general fund, a little over $18 million in total. The board approved two youth-painted murals and cancelled its own December meeting.
- August 20, 2020Two dozen players write in against the 45-minute court rule — and the board takes no action
The board met on Zoom with no action items on its agenda while a court reservation policy taking effect four days later drew about two dozen emailed public comments, printed in full across pages 11 to 49 of this document. The Chair read the emails aloud; the board took no vote on the policy, and the Director committed to answering every writer individually within 48 hours.
- August 20, 2020The same meeting, filed without the emails: ten pages that say the Chair read them
This is the city's ten-page filing of the August 20, 2020 board meeting — the minutes with no attachments. It records that the Chair read all emails submitted about the pickle ball and tennis scheduling change, that the board took no action on the policy, and that the Director committed to answering every writer within 48 hours. The emails themselves are in the other filing of the same meeting.
- February 20, 2020"Just putting another band aid" — tennis and pickleball push back on the GO Bond court plan
The first presentation of the GO Bond sports court rehabilitation to the board drew sustained objection from tennis and pickleball players, who said earlier meetings had led them to expect full resurfacing and professional-grade courts rather than crack repair. The board tabled the action to a special meeting and asked for two revisions — one with as much professional grade as possible, one showing what the existing money buys. A parent also told the board a discrimination complaint he filed in December 2018 was still unresolved.
- January 16, 2020The community pool gets its final concept — three of five public comments answered
A four-member board accepted the final concept design for the new community pool, with ASA Architects reporting that three of the five comments from the August 2019 public input meetings fit inside the project budget and two did not. The board also approved a revised fees and facility-use policy and a Youth Board logo, and tabled its own work session and meeting-location questions to February 20.