TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Before City Council adopts the 2025 budget in late August, they'll hear from each city department about their requested budget. Parks and Rec is up first on Monday night.
- Parks and Rec will be among the first departments to present their budget requests and project updates to City Council on Monday, July 15.
- Meetings are held at 5 pm Mondays, at City Hall.
- Livestreaming and archived video of meetings is available at the City's website.
RELATED | It's city budget discussion season in Twin Falls, and the council wants your input
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
"At my age, motion is the lotion that keeps you going,” Forrest Fonnesbeck told me.
By 9am any day of the week, these pickleball courts are full of folks like Forrest.
“More importantly,” Forrest said, “the social aspect, who we meet and laugh and giggle with and play whatever.”
The public park offers a place to gather, to play, and to share community, made possible by taxpayer dollars through parks and rec
“I know that there's a lot of demand on property taxes,” Forrest said.
Forrest was among the group that lobbied the city for pickleball courts at frontier park.
“What I threw at the city council was: it's time that older people, boomers such as myself, are also supported recreational venue,” Forrest said. “And they responded very favorably.”
“People put a lot of ownership about the open spaces and care about the places they like to go,” Parks and Rec Director Wendy Davis told Idaho News 6. “And they have a lot of good ideas of the things we should do to make it better.”
I met with Davis at Twin Falls City Park, which is 120 years old this year.
“How cool is it to think of all the generations of this community that have gathered in this space?” Davis said.
Before City Council adopts the 2025 budget in late August, they'll hear from each city department about their requested budget. Parks and Rec is up first - on Monday night.
Davis is excited about several big projects, like one at Vista Bonita park, upgrades to the skatepark at Harmon, and improvements coming to Baxter's dog park.
But, because of the nature of the multi-year funding cycle, those marquee items won't show up on the budget request on Monday
Instead, there are a number of maintenance-type items: asphalt repair, a tractor and mower for right-of-ways, Thomsen Park trail repair and story boards. And oh yeah, resurfacing the pickleball court.
“These are the things I hate to have to spend money on but they're good and that's parking lots and driveways into parks. I mean, I don't want buy asphalt with park dollars, but sometimes I have to buy asphalt with park dollars.
Budget season is a good time to get involved.
"One of the most important things we do is enhance and promote community gathering spaces places for people to come together,” Davis said.
