Last Updated on August 6, 2023, 2:50 AM | Published: May 9, 2023
MOORE, Oklahoma — Moore’s first City Council meeting of May was quick and wrapped up a week ahead of the much anticipated May 9 Curbside Recycling special election.
Councilors tackled some annual renewals of city contracts, but there were a couple of items that you should know about. Here are the details:
- The City will add gates with emergency exit bars to Buck Thomas Park in line with a resident complaint the council heard last month.
- Kiwanis Park will be getting pickleball courts in the next few months, following a larger trend of cities investing in public pickleball facilities.
Park Upgrades
The Moore City Council is typically responsive to its citizens, especially around issues of public safety. On Monday, they were able to take action and begin to solve a citizen complaint in 2 weeks.
In the April 17th City Council meeting, a concerned Emily Midget came to the council to speak about a safety issue at Buck Thomas baseball park.
“I emailed you images of the gates… They say emergency exit only and they are chained and locked. Who is responsible for the safety of the patrons at the park? Nobody will answer me.”
At the time, the Moore city staff agreed that the locked gates were an issue, and acknowledged that they had no idea that the gates were locked. The baseball association leases the fields, so the City has to make sure they comply with emergency regulations.
City Manager Brooks Mitchell said that the City was “looking to see if we can install push [exits] on the existing gates, or if we need to replace the gates.”
The council even gave the concerned citizen their phone numbers so that she could contact them if the gates were locked again before the City could get to fixing the problem permanently.
Come the first of May, city officials had already secured the lowest-bidding fence contractor to replace the gates with ones that had the emergency exit panic bars and will solve the Buck Thomas safety issue.
Councilor Melissa Hunt of Ward 2 commented that “this is lightning speed for city government,” thanking staff for getting the issue taken care of so quickly.
Pickleball court
Moore City Council authorized staff to start soliciting proposals for a new pickleball court in Kiwanis Park, located near the senior center right off E Main Street.
Pickleball is like tennis or badminton, but smaller (or table tennis, but larger.)
The city currently has some courts in the Station, but they are indoor, bring-your-own-net, with a one-time fee required to pay.
These courts will be the first in the City to be free and open to the public.
While much of the details are yet to be determined, the City did specify that the court will be about 50 feet away from the existing playground and adjacent to the walking track.
Pickleball is on the rise in the United States and has recently been named America’s fastest-growing sport.
Moore has been on the cutting edge of new park equipment since at least the unveiling of the new Fitness Court at Fairmoore Park, and pursuing a public pickleball court falls in stride for the city.
The item passed unanimously.
The next Moore city council meeting, as well as a public hearing on proposed budgets for the next fiscal year, is scheduled for Monday, May 15, 2023, at 6:30 P.M.
Damian Powell is our government reporter for the smaller municipalities in the OKC metro such as Moore, Norman, Bethany, and Warr Acres. Damian is studying Political Science at the University of Oklahoma.
