Rec Complex donated land to be surveyed

PotlatchDeltic requesting an easement to its private property

The El Dorado City Council has jump-started the process of accepting an offer of land to expand the El Dorado-Union County Recreation Complex.

During a regular meeting March 18, council members unanimously voted to move forward with conducting a survey for four to five acres of land on the south end of the facility on Champagnolle Road.

The Complex board of directors has been working with PotatchDeltic for several months to iron out the details of the agreement — the second such donation the timber management company has made to the complex within the past 16 years.

Greg Harrison, chairman of the complex board, told city council members that in 2005, PotlatchDeltic, then Deltic Timber, donated land to the complex.

Four new softball and baseball fields now take up much of the property, which is just south of the Dumas pavilion.

A land easement for the grantor is typically included in the terms of such a donation but an easement was not provided in the 2005 agreement, Harrison explained.

“So that was something that the company was seeing if the city would be able to offer to (PotlatchDeltic) being able to get access to their land, as well as any potential land that they look to donate to the city for recreational opportunities for the youth of this community,” he said.

Harrison said the complex and PotlatchDeltic were seeking an OK from the council to provide an easement onto other property the company owns that is adjacent to the complex.

“Is there going to be a need for any type of survey or will the mapping we have suffice?” asked Council Member Paul Choate.

Teresa Swint, property administration specialist for PotlatchDeltic, said a land survey is needed and the proposal calls for the city to pick up the tab.

Council Member Andre Rucks inquired about the cost of granting the easement and Harrison said the land survey would be the only cost to the city.

Harrison, also a member of the Union County Quorum Court, told council members that Union County Judge Mike Loftin has said the county could assist with the easement.

The county contributes at least $100,000 to the complex’s annual operating budget.

Harrison pointed to a map with a blue dotted line that ran along the edge of the four- to five-acre property, noting that the easement could potentially come off Champagnolle Road near LifeTouch Hospice, which is adjacent to the complex.

Swint said the route was suggested by engineers but plans for the easement are not set in stone.

“We don’t really care where it is … It just came up in conversation when we were approached about donating,” she told the council.

“I pulled the files and realized that was just an error, that when we conveyed the last piece of property, there was just no easement and we can’t get to the rest of our property right now at all,” Swint continued. “But we don’t really have a need to get to it right now but at some point we might.”

Council Member Willie McGhee asked if the city would hire a land surveyor and Swint said yes, noting that local firm Ball and Paulus Surveyors, Inc., conducted the survey for the 2005 donation.

“They’ve got all the groundwork, so to speak, so it would probably be very simple for them to … because they’re going to have to survey the piece of land that we’re going to donate and they’re going to have to survey this easement …,” Swint said.

She said PotlatchDeltic is happy to donate the land and the easement is a tag-on issue because it was discovered in the research pertaining to the matter.

Specific purpose

Council Member Dianne Hammond, a former member of the complex board, noted that initial discussions called for the additional property to be used for a specific purpose, namely a new baseball field for older teens and adults.

The field is one of the projects that is included in the second leg of a two-phase master plan to renovate and expand the complex.

Phase one, which includes several components, is nearing completion with the addition of two new youth soccer fields and two new baseball and softball fields, all on the south end of the facility.

Construction of two existing fields, one each for baseball and softball, was also completed this year, as were the installation of turf, lighting and fencing on four older fields on the north end of the facility.

Phase one is being covered by a $2.7 million commitment from the El Dorado Works tax, a onecent city sales tax that is dedicated to economic development, municipal infrastructure and quality-of-life projects.

Fifteen percent of tax revenue is earmarked for parks and playgrounds.

Last summer, the El Dorado Advertising and Promotion Commission kicked in $257,000 to finish the soccer fields after unexpected engineering costs cut into the $2.7 million budget.

The remaining components of phase one of the master plan are additional restrooms and a concession stand to serve the south fields.

For concessions, the complex board recently accepted another donation of two used kiosks from Murphy USA.

Loftin is working with the corporation to transport the kiosks from out of state.

Complex board members plan to present another funding request to the El Dorado Works Board, who administers the sales tax of the same name, to cover the costs of installation, including concrete skirting and implements for utilities — water, wastewater and electricity.

The new baseball field has been proposed in phase two, along with a parking lot expansion and improvements and a recreation trail that would encircle the facility.

On March 18, Hammond and Swint explained that the land PotlatchDeltic is planning to donate does not have to be used specifically for a baseball field but for purposes that are compatible with the development of the complex.

Hammond also said that the proposal requires that the city use the property within five years, or the property will revert to PotlatchDeltic.

“If there hasn’t been anything on that property by that time, if we see that there is going to be a project going forward, y’all will extend that time period. Is that correct? she asked Swint.

Swint said she has not had a conversation with other company officials about the matter but that an extension would likely be granted under such circumstances.

The company may seek to sell other land it owns in the area at some point or a county road could possibly built in the area in the future, she said.

Swint reiterated that while a specific purpose for the four to five acres wasn’t listed as a contingency in the proposal, the land must be used for purposes that are similar to existing activities at the complex.

“(A company official) gave an example that if we just said it was for the use and benefit of the complex, you can put a gravel pit in and say we’re using it to fill that hole so that’s for the use and benefit of the complex,” she said.