Sedalia Park Board Gains One Member, Loses Another

The Sedalia Park Board lost one member Thursday night, but also gained one.

Sydni Killion announced she was leaving the Park Board at the very end of last night’s 25-minute meeting, held at the Heckart Community Center, 1800 W. 3rd. She and her family are buying a house in the Green Ridge area, disqualifying her from serving on the board as a non-Sedalia resident.

Adam Porter appeared at his very first Park Board meeting Thursday night, even though he was appointed to the position by Mayor Andrew Dawson in June. Porter replaces Roy Poynter. He introduced himself to all the other park board members present. Secretary Megan Simon was absent Thursday.

That leaves one vacancy on the board. Anyone wishing to fill the unexpired term of Killion may apply online at the City of Sedalia website, and show up in person at City Hall and fill out a form.

The mayor will then appoint someone from all the qualified candidates at the next Council meeting.

Porter previously ran for a seat on the Sedalia City Council and was unsuccessful.

All the gunite work on Liberty Park Pond has been completed, and the pond will slowly be filled with water once again via stormwater runoff and hydrants.

“We’re going to fill it halfway with some storm water, so we’re working with Public Works to be able to get some water in there. Once we get some water in there, the Missouri Department Conservation will be checking the chemistry of the water every 48 hours to make sure it’s safe, then they’ll restock it,” commented Parks & Rec Director Amy Epple, adding that fencing still surrounds the pond for now.

Rescue tubes will be added to the pond later on, she stated.

The fence should come down sometime next week.

Epple said she was very pleased with the work done by the company from Alabama (ProShot Concrete), with good communication throughout the project.

“Oh my gosh, they were fabulous,” Epple exclaimed. “Probably one of the best contractors I’ve ever worked with. They were here on site with a 12- to 15-man crew. They worked constantly, and they communicated really well with us.”

The work done by the company, which cost $499,000, should be good for another 30 years, Epple noted.

At Liberty Pool, the slide was repainted a couple months ago by Raw Custom Coatings, LLC, at a cost of $42,900.

The next step involves touch-up paint on the lanes and other markings as well as caulking at the pool sometime in April to keep Liberty Pool going for another couple of years for $16,800 by Baker Painting. They were the lowest of four bidders. Work is to be done by May 1.

Light Up Liberty has been installed and includes over 100 displays, Epple said. Most of the displays are sponsored by local businesses. The official start of Light Up Liberty is Thanksgiving night.

Polar Express for 2025 has already sold out. And Parks & Rec offered a couple of extra nights this year.

Once a stormwater project is complete on Liberty Park Boulevard, diagonal parking will become a reality in the area just north of Liberty Park.

Lots of dirt is being moved at the new Memory Laes bowling alley site on East 5th Street. Work is to be completed by mid-September, when it will be turned over to Parks & Rec so they can start training their staff and be ready to open by Nov. 9.

“So if you have family coming in next year for Thanksgiving, you can go bowling,” Epple quipped. Lanes will be rented by the hour, she noted. The exact price will be announced in the spring.

Park Board approved a nearly $43,000 change order for the bowling alley so that a much better standing seam roof can be constructed that will carry a 20-year warranty. The previous roof planned was a screw-in type that only carried a five-year-warranty.

The cost of a professional fireworks display has increased exponentially recently.

The latest figure is $25,000. “You know, that’s a lot of money to spend on fireworks,” Epple said. “We put a bid out two months ago, asking what $15,000 would get us, and each of the four companies said we’re not going to bid on it, our minimum (price) this year is $25,000.”

Epple noted that “It’s a lot of money, and with our park budget, we can’t afford $25,000. City Council has always given us $5,000 (towards the cost) and then we paid the difference.”

She added that the Sedalia Area Chamber of Commerce stepped away from sponsoring that event in 2017. That’s when Sedalia Parks & Rec took over at the behest of the mayor at the time. The cost then was around $10,000.

Now, with the inflated cost of a professional fireworks show, held at the Missouri State Fairgrounds, Epple said that she hopes the City will go half on the cost of the 2026 show, which would be $12,500.

Signing a contract with the fireworks provider soon will lock in the price and guarantee a show in July.

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Tax revenues are up this month after being down the past couple of months, which was  good news presented by board member Dan VanDyne.

Renovation work on Liberty Park Stadium is not yet complete, as “the fence is not at the standards that I expect it to be,” Epple told KSIS. “So we are still working with PCE and their contractors to come in and fix the fence and make it correct.”

Epple added that the baseball stadium renovation was a nearly $3 million project overall. “Right now we’re holding on to close to $400,000, so they need to get it fixed,” she stated.

Also at the meeting, Park Board established a fee for the rental of three pickleball courts at Liberty Park for special events.

The three north courts may be rented for $20 an hour, while the other three will remain open for general use by the public.