Museum, ex-course touted as city parks

NLR aldermen must approve change

The Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum and the former Stone Links Golf Course will become city parks under a proposal by the North Little Rock Parks and Recreation Commission that will need the City Council's approval.

The commission unanimously agreed in separate votes Monday to request that the North Little Rock City Council grant the parks designations for both sites.

The City Council allocated $40,000 last month to renovate the former golf pro shop into a hospitality house and to maintain the grounds of the former Stone Link Golf Course so it can be converted to a city park. Additions will include two cricket fields along the former No. 1 fairway.

Adding the maritime museum as a park is a new proposal that the City Council has yet to hear. Terry Hartwick, who became the new parks director on Jan. 1, said that he considered it an obvious addition.

"I said I thought it should have been a park all along," Hartwick said prior to Monday's meeting. "It's something that brings in a lot of tourists."

The maritime museum, not currently part of any city department, includes the USS Razorback submarine, the Pearl Harbor-surviving tug USS Hoga and the Arkansas River Historical Society archives. The city owns all the museum's assets and is contributing $150,000 in this year's city budget toward the museum's operations.

Hartwick told commissioners that he has been assured that "the city will continue funding [the museum] as it does now," shifting its allocation to the Parks Department. The City Council has final say on budget matters. The Parks Department's $6.2 million budget is separate from the city's $64.3 million general fund budget and relies heavily on the city's 3 percent "hamburger tax" on hotel room rentals and prepared food sales.

Commissioners cautioned that the city wouldn't be obligated to transfer the museum's funding to the Parks Department temporarily or permanently.

"That's just a gamble we have to take," Commission Chairman Vicki Stephens said.

Metro on 04/19/2016

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