The Arc of Brown County in February 2022 made a $100,000 donation to the City of Brownwood for the purpose of creating all-play or inclusive play components at Allcorn Park. Any additional funds exceeding the combined $225,000 between the Arc and BMDD would have to come out of the City of Brownwood Parks and Recreation budget during the next fiscal year. The City Council must still ratify the BMDD’s Tuesday action at its next meeting. 

With Tuesday’s approval, the process of identifying specific playground equipment can begin, and ordering can occur after the City Council signs off, with the plan being to pay the bills after Oct. 1, 2024 – the start of the 2024-25 fiscal year for the City of Brownwood. The current Allcorn Park playground equipment would either be moved to other areas on site or relocated to other parks in the future.

Since the 2018-19 fiscal year, the BMDD has allocated at least $100,000 each cycle to assist with upgrading parks. Some of the improvements during that time include playground equipment at Riverside Park, Trigg Park, Wiggins Park and Lednicky Park, the pickleball courts at Coggin Park, and the purchase of a restroom trailer to be used on site at downtown events and festivals.

For the current 2023-24 fiscal year, the BMDD has already approved $250,000 to be spent toward the ongoing renovations at Riverside Park – the largest sum it has contributed to any park project since its inception.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved the 2022-23 BMDD audit, provided by Tony Krischke.