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Local Masterplan and Needs Assessment <br />for the . <br />City of Paris, Texas <br />Parks and Recreation Facilities <br />Section 1 Introduction <br />The development of parks and recreational facilities by local government entities in recent <br />years has frequently been achieved through the use of grants-in-aid from the Texas Parks <br />and Wildlife Department using the old Local Park, Recreation and Open Space Fund and <br />the Land and Water Conservation Fund to match local effort in producing quality <br />facilities. The catch as it were was that the entity was required by the scorirg system to <br />select projects on the basis of the Texas Outdoor Recreation P/an (TORP) amended in <br />1990. Through legislation passed in 1993 (H.B. 706), the Texas Recreation and Parks <br />Account Program was created which among other things does not require the use of the <br />TORP but allows local decision making. <br />The decision by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department not to use the Texas Outdoor <br />Recreation Plan any longer in establishing /oca/ park needs for cities such as Paris is a <br />finro edged sword. First of all, the goal and priority setting decisions for outdoor recreation <br />facilities in the city now revert back to the city which can be an obvious enhancement of the <br />grants-in-aid programs from the city's perspective. On the other side of the coin, however, <br />the city is now faced with the requirement of doing the planning and prioritization it has not <br />had to do in the past. <br />Besides the obvious necessity brought about by competition for grants to score well, the <br />City of Paris has a need to compile information it already has in many city hall locations into <br />one document so that reasonable decisions can be made with respect to funding and <br />scheduling recreational opportunities in Paris. Further, the city has need to make <br />assessment of recreation needs and put them in priority order. Finally, the city has need <br />to establish a reasonable timetable over which improvements will be sought. <br />The purpose of this masterplan is to accomplish all these objectives. <br />-1- <br />