05 - APPROVE MINUTES FROM 04/13/2015

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Regular Council Meeting April 13, 2015 Page 3 Mary Clark, 3160 Allen — she reiterated what others said about the trail and encouraged the Council to restore the trail between Collegiate and the loop. Mrs. Clark said it should not be a surprise that this part of trail was in bad shape, because it was the oldest part of the trail. Pat Cochran, 1025 Johnson Woods — she said she was an advocate for the trail. Mrs. Cochran said she served on the Citizen's Advisory Committee for the City of Paris Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan and data collected indicated that the majority of respondents viewed better maintenance of the existing facilities as a high priority need. She also said it was one of the most widely used recreational facilities in the City and many people use the Collegiate Drive trail head as an access point. She said she hoped the Council voted to make an investment needed to restore the integrity of the surface so it could be consistent with the high quality of the newer sections of the trail. David Cook — he said he and a lot of his fellow Master Naturalists maintained the butterfly gardens along the Trail de Paris and the trail was one of the crown jewels of Paris and Lamar County. He urged the Council to really think about maintaining the trail, because when the Chamber recruits people for the Tour de Paris bicycle rally and other things, the Trail de Paris is always something they talk about. Ray Banks, 3450 Robin Road — he referenced the Airport Advisory Committee minutes of their meetings on November 20 and January 15 regarding the AgPro land sale. He said the minutes reflected Shawn Napier saying if the purchase took place the airport would receive $90,000. Mr. Banks urged Council to put that money in the general fund to budget where needed. Mr. Banks said with regard to the Trail de Paris, he would like to ask Mr. Ellis to give the City of Paris the same deal that they gave Lamar County and referred to a Paris News article dated March 24th. Mr. Banks said the news reported the trail for the Roxton Project and the Lynx Foundation for the Blossom Project would contribute a 20% match and the Greater Paris Foundation would agree to maintain the trails with no cost to the County at all. Mr. Banks said the City was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on this trail and the County was spending zero. He said the City should try to see if they could get some assistance. Johnna Beshirs — she said she was the race director for the Turkey Trot and the race normally turns out about 400 people every year on the trail. Mrs. Beshirs said the current deteriorating conditions of that section of the trail were no longer safe and they were looking for different venues to move this race to. She urged the City to address the trail maintenance. Carol Hufnagle, 720 Bunker Street — she suggested the City take up a collection of those who were using the trail and interested in the trail instead of the tax payers having to pay for the repair of the trail. Stephanie Connot — on behalf of the Lamar County Coalition of Education Business and Industry, she spoke of rehabbing the trail. She said they had a program called Kids Marathons and they utilized the trail for two events related to this project.