HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-21-2025 Recreation Board Meeting MInutesMinutes of the Fairhope Recreation Board
The Fairhope Recreation Board met on Wednesday, May 21st, 2025, at 5:15 p.m. at the
Fairhope Recreation Center, 803 North Greeno Road, Fairhope, Alabama.
Present: Pat White, Cathy Hudson, Charlie Langham, Scott Berry, Mike Baugh, Jack
Burrell, and Lisa Atchley. Absent: Maurice Morrisette, Debra Flowers, Josh Warren, Mary
Lee Matzenger, and Corey Martin.
The meeting was called to order by Mike Baugh at 5:15 p.m. The minutes of the April
16th, 2025, meeting was considered and approved on a motion by Charlie Langham,
seconded by Cathy Hudson, none opposed.
Guest(s): Gary Gover and Fairhope Times.
Recreation Operational Updates: Pat White presented a slideshow showing and
educating the Board of all Volanta Park and ways we can improve our Flagship Park.
• Visuals from overhead at graduation showing parking issues, exiting safety issues, etc.
Last year, we had 9,400 people attend FHS Graduation in the stadium and this year was
roughly the same.
• New lighting will be going in soon on the top baseball field for safety purposes. We are
also going to use our Turf Tank (paint robot) to paint parking spaces for that field in time
for the high school football season.
• Potential for moving the skatepark from it current location as it is unsafe area so close
to the road and that would free that space up for much needed parking or possibly new
gym space.
• New Concession/Bathroom building is completed. Stairs and aluminum railing were all
done in house by Public Works and Ray Mena, saving the city a ton of money.
• New entrance to the high school baseball field/stadium is completed with brick columns
and ornamental fencing. Moving forward, during any event held at the baseball
field/stadium, this entrance will need to be closed to vehicular traffic for safety reasons.
• The Master Plan done in 2019 of Volanta (footprint) showing 2 new gyms where the
skate park.
Recreation New Business: Cathy Hudson gave a presentation on behalf of HEAT
Swimming. HEAT is requesting renting 4 lanes for 3 hours a day for 5 days a week from
September through July at a rate of $1200/month. All participants are members of the
pool already. After some discussion, this subject will be tabled for next month’s Rec
Board Meeting.
Regarding the Highway 13 and 32 property, the consulting firm wants to meet in the next
few weeks and get a better idea of the general direction of if sports tourism is the way to
go or not. After a lengthy conversation between Rec Board members , it was
recommended that the city go in the direction of heavy recreation and not sports tourism.
This matter will be discussed with Council in next month’s meeting.
Maurice Morrisette has resigned from his seat on the Recreation Board; therefore,
discussion was had on steps to take to fill this vacant seat.
General discussion was held regarding the possibility of expanding the press box in the
stadium and steps to make it ADA compliant if we do go that route.
Being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:40 p.m.