The City of Republic this week approved accepting up to a $1 million lending package from Arvest Bank to fund improvements at JR Martin Park.
The improvements, which include a plaza area and pavilion for a farmers' market and community events, were initially part of a $10 million package of parks improvements meant to be funded by a bond issue Republic voters approved in 2022. The city anticipated the work would cost $2 million.
Republic CFO Bob Ford said expansions to the Rush waterpark cost $8 million as planned, but the parks department also chose to spend about $700 thousand of that bond money on improvements at Miller Park. That expense wasn’t part of the plan, now only $1.3 million of the initial pool of money remains.
“The Parks Department basically borrowed $708,000 from monies designated to fund the Jerry Martin Project,” Ford explained to Republic’s City Council, “to fund the tennis court and pickleball construction at Miller Park. On anticipating that they would pay those funds back at the end of the year from operating earnings. We had a flat year with regard to sales tax revenue, some incremental expenses. And as a result, when we got to the end of the year, parks was not able to repay all of those funds to the JR Martin bucket.”
He added that the expected cost of work at JR Martin has only increased, largely due to inflation, adding a sense of urgency.
He said that the city will redraft its plans for JR Martin to meet the initial $2 million project budget. Approving the loan and assuring funding was the first step before getting to work on that redesign and rebidding the project.
Ford said the loan from Arvest has a five-year term and the city should have no problem repaying it within that timeframe, if not earlier, and that the parks department is also pursuing a $500 thousand grant to help fund the project. They’ll know if they are awarded that grant by the end of August.
Ford said if all goes well the work in JR Martin Park could get started this September or October and wrap up by May of next year.