At its regular meeting last month, the Powell City Council debated whether to take land for a future park or money for the Cottonwood Village Subdivision on the north side of town.

City ordinance requires the developers of annexed subdivisions to donate 6% of the total area of land for park space, or to make a payment equal to 10% of the value of land being annexed.

Mayor John Wetzel tried to persuade the council that it behooved the city to take the cash instead of the property, which is part of the Cason Annexation.

“I just look at taking the land as taxing ourselves in the future,” Wetzel said. “The more we build parks, the more it’s going to cost us to maintain them. We’re already struggling to maintain the parks we have.”

The city’s budget for this fiscal year allocates $735,000 for the 10 existing parks that encompass 125 acres. That doesn’t include $852,000 for the Powell Aquatic Center.

The city faces potential cuts from the state in the wake of Wyoming’s financial problems, and the failure of the 1% general purpose tax in the last election means that allocation for maintaining the current parks could shrink. Funds for park development are scarce.

Councilors Tim Sapp and Floyd Young argued the city should take the land for the Cottonwood subdivision. They think the park is needed to serve the future population of the area.

“You’re going to have basically, not quite 400 people, moving into that area. And that’s the nearest park to them,” Sapp said.

When the city takes the 10% payment, it goes into a fund for park development or equipment. The city can’t use it for anything else. Sapp pointed out the city has taken money for annexations with some other subdivisions, and the two parks remain undeveloped.

Councilor Scott Mangold argued that with the city’s uncertain finances, maintenance costs — which must come from the city’s general fund — are going to be hard to come by.

“We don’t know what’s coming down the road,” Mangold said.

Wetzel also referred to American Planning Association for outdoor recreation standards, which recommends 1 acre of park space for every 100 residents. With the city’s 125 acres of park space for an approximate 6,400 population, Powell currently has nearly 1 acre of park space for every 50 residents.

“It’s not like we’re lacking for a number of parks,” Wetzel said.

The council ended up voting for taking the money, with Sapp and Young voting against the motion. It was part of a growing issue with the city parks.

Other planned parks

Last year, 2 acres of land in the Cedarwood subdivision became the topic of debate among city councilors and nearby residents —while that particular dispute was ultimately resolved. In 2001, when the Cedarwood Phase IV subdivision was annexed, the developer, Rosewood Corporation, elected to donate 2 acres of land for park space. At the time, the city was happy to take the property for future park space.

But last year, some confusion arose over whether the land had been properly deeded to the city, and councilors began discussing the possibility of taking cash instead of land. When word got out the city was considering taking money instead of the land, 35 residents of the neighborhood signed a petition demanding the city hold onto the property for a future park.

Among the residents was Donald Seagreaves. Before moving to Powell, he traveled every year from Pennsylvania to hunt antelope in the Shirley Basin.

“I fell in love with Wyoming,” Seagreaves said.

He kept his eye out for jobs in the area, but nothing in his line of work ever came up. When he finally retired, he decided to move to the state and ultimately settled in Powell.

Seagreaves said there’s no park near the neighborhood — at least none that he and the other residents feel is close enough.

As it turned out, the land for the park had been properly deeded over to the city. So, Powell still has 2 acres of open space for a park in the Cedarwood subdivision. The problem is finding the money to actually develop it.

Centennial Park also remains undeveloped. Over the course of 2004 and 2005, the city was deeded more than 10 acres of land as part of the annexation of a few subdivisions in the Gateway West area of Powell.

In 2009, Centennial Park was planned as the city’s premiere park area, and the city received a grant for plans; they included a splash area, skateboard park, and disc and miniature golf courses at the center of the 10-acre space.

Estimates at the time pegged the cost of construction at about $3 million, and fundraising efforts were initiated with quite a buzz surrounding the concept. Unfortunately, that’s where the project fizzled out.

Mangold, who was mayor at the time, said it would still be nice to have a park on that end of town. Residents don’t have to walk far to a park, such as Westside Park, which is 0.75 miles from the Cedarwood park location.

Mangold said the issue is, when you have that distance for residents to go to a park, you have a lot of kids crossing streets.

“That’s what my vision for Powell would be, is a safe walk for everyone to a park,” Mangold said.

However, with mineral revenues at the state level collapsing and the pandemic hurting the economy, “we just really don’t have the funds anymore to keep going with this,” Mangold said.

Financial challenges

Seagreaves said he understands the city’s financial challenges with regard to developing the Cedarwood park.

“I know times are a little tough with COVID. There’s not enough money floating around,” he said.

Seagreaves has been seeking other funding options and has been talking to a foundation that might put up as much as $15,000, if the city will match that. He knows $30,000 wouldn’t put in swings and a basketball court, but it would get some grass, a split-rail fence, and a couple trees and benches.

“We could at least get the beginning of a park,” he said.

While the city might be able to find $15,000 for the match, ongoing maintenance would add expenses to the general fund —  which is what concerns some of the councilors. Mangold said there are some statewide grants that can also help with park development, but these tend to be small pots of money and competitive among municipalities, especially now.

Mangold added that, again, after development, the city has to pay for ongoing, annual maintenance.

Depending on what happens to the economy as it struggles through the pandemic, it might be some time before the city adds any more parks.