Parks and recreation improvements, overall city beautification, code enforcement, and seeking more grants were just a few of the topics discussed at a Monday Kingsville City Commission workshop on setting future goals for the city.

The city commissioner and city department directors met to lay out their goals and ideas for the city in the coming year.

City Commissioner Al Garcia was the first to speak about improvements that are needed in the city-county park system.

“I would like to see a top-notch park system; the current facilities have been deteriorating for years, and if we let it go any further it will be next to impossible to come back from that,” Garcia said.

“I am primarily focused on Dick Kleberg Park because of the number of children who can be serviced there with tournaments in soccer, baseball, and other activities.”

Kleberg County Parks and Recreation Director Susan Ivy noted that when the parks were first established it was by mutual cooperation between the city and county, and both entities need to commit to projects in order to see any improvements.

“This needs to be a collaborative effort between both entities and an updated needs assessment should be taken so that the more important needs can be decided and the amount of money it would take to address those needs could be allocated for our budget,” Ivy said. “I don’t want to step into anything until I’m sure I have a budget to support it.”

Ivy spoke of the roads within Dick Kleberg Park, which are constantly needing attention and assessments.

City Commissioner Stanley Laskowski suggested that road crews from the county precincts could assist in the developments as needed in order to better utilize their current resources.

Laskowski also spoke of the need to establish a better working relationship with the Kleberg County Commission on projects such as the parks where collaboration is key.

Mayor Sam Fugate added that with new County Judge-Elect Juan Escobar coming into office soon, opportunities for fresh collaborations are abundant.

“We are going to have a new County Judge coming in January and with that comes a new outlook of which we need to build on,” Fugate said.

Ivy mentioned that she Concert has extended an invitation to Escobar at his convenience to take a tour of the park system’s current facilities, there are eight in Kingsville alone, and allow him to express his interests in any ideas he has for future developments.

Ivy began working in the park system 15 years ago, at a time when the budget was well over one million dollars. Today, she says, money is a lot harder to come by.

“I apply for grants all the time and try to get as much as possible for our park system,” she said. “Our budget has crept down to as low as $600,000 at times and fluctuates frequently. Our current budget is somewhere between $800-900,000.”

City Manager Carlos Yerena is now looking into creating a committee with two members from the city commission and two members of the county commission in order to better bridge communication between the two entities on this issue.

Another topic, which received a lot of feedback, was the need for a better overall beautification of the city.

“We need to continue to work on our streets and stay on top of the landfill,” City Commissioner Charlie Wilson said.

In regards to the streets, Yerena spoke of a four million dollar, five-year plan for street improvements that is currently being processed.

The city landfill recently received 11 violations from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality but according to Yerena the city is now back in compliance and even better than before.

Garcia mentioned that the new landfill manager, Gary Fuselier, is an asset who will help maintain the current landfill conditions.

“Things should stay great out there now that we have a new manager out there which as we all know we haven’t had in some time,” Garcia said.

Naim Khan, City Engineer, mentioned that the landfill is in great shape and that no more space will be needed for many years to come.

“If we eventually did need more space we could dig down 25 to 30 ft. which would give us around 40 to 50 years of time,” Khan said.

Laskowski, who is also President of Keep Kingsville Beautiful, spoke of the ongoing problem of residential trash and brush which has plagued the city for years.

“I don’t know how we can break the cycle,” Laskowski said. “We’ve given the taxpayers so many opportunities with trash-offs and brush pick-ups to clean up this city and it still seems to be a mess. I just don’t understand it.”

Fugate agreed and said that in order for this town to reach its highest potential attention must be paid to this issue.

“We have the potential to be a town of 40 to 50 thousand people but we have to clean this city up,” Fugate said. “We need curb appeal and cannot rely on the National Guard to do all of the work for us. This also includes code enforcement.”

On the issue of code enforcement, Laskowski mentioned the many vendors that are seen down the main streets in town selling various items.

“What they are doing is illegal.” Laskowski said. “They need to have a license to sell their items and we as a city have not enforced that.

There are some organizations which are exempt from that ordinance but most people are not.”

Bob Trescott, Downtown Manager, brought up the issue of grant writing as an area the city could coordinate better.

“I have met so many people from around the state at different conferences and workshops I have been to recently who want to give us money and mentioned to me that there are many grants which simply go unclaimed because nobody applies for them,” Trescott said.

City Attorney Courtney Alvarez immediately brought up the fact that a clerk would need to be hired in order to access the clerical and data work which grants require.

Kingsville Police Chief Ricardo Torres spoke of his own experience with grant writing and how tedious the process can be.

“As someone who writes grants all time, I know firsthand how time consuming and strenuous it can be,” Torres said.

“We have fortunately received many grants however we sometimes have trouble spending the money because the expenditures for each grant are extremely specific.”

Kleberg County uses an outside company, GrantWorks, to work on their grants and the company provides assistance in planning, management, and other skills to implement every aspect of projects.

“Even if the city were to work with a company such as GrantWorks you would still need someone to compile all the information and data to give to them which is practically all of the work,” Torres said.

Yerena mentioned the possibility of the departments sharing an employee whose job will be specifically to work on grants.

Fugate mentioned that grant writing was in the city’s current master plan and is something that will be at the forefront of the city’s agenda in the coming months.

Other topics that were mentioned include the leverage of current resources, the need to continue to strengthen partnerships with Texas A&M University- Kingsville and the Kingsville Independent School District, the water supply and drainage, improvements to government entities such as the fire and police stations, and the need to improve the workforce in the community.

These issues will factor into two budget workshops the city commission is having this Thursday and Friday.

“There have been a lot of positive things here in town recently but this is going to be a tough year and we have a long wish list,” Fugate said.

“Regardless of that fact, this is our responsibility and until we tackle problems like these head on we’re not going to grow the way that we want to,” Kingsville’s mayor said.