Should Decatur look to make bigger splash? Interactive fountain bi draw for Florence

By Catherine Godbey, Staff Writer, The Decatur Daily

The fountain at the River Heritage Park in Florence. “The fountain is everything we wanted it to be,” said Florence City Planner Melissa Bailey. “Hundreds come to the fountain each day. When it first opened, it wasn’t unusual to have 1,000 people at the park.”
Many visitors to Florence’s River Heritage Park leave envious, including Decatur residents.
Compared by fountain consultants to the Bellagio hotel’s fountain in Las Vegas, the park’s interactive fountain combines music, lights and water to create a recreational and entertainment Mecca.
Could Decatur provide residents with a similar attraction? Not with the current budget, poor-performing sales-tax revenues and higher-prioritized projects.

“Building a press box at Jack Allen, in our opinion, is the No. 1 priority,” said Decatur-Morgan County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau President Tami Reist. “It would make Decatur eligible for more tournaments, and tournaments bring in money.”
Monday, the City Council approved transferring $150,000 designated for a parking lot at Ingalls Harbor to the soccer complex press box project, which translates to hosting opportunities.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics men’s soccer championship and the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s soccer tournaments both require press boxes at host sites.
With the press box approved, Reist said she is 99 percent certain the NAIA will tap Jack Allen to host the men’s 2010 and 2011 championships, which would generate a $500,000 economic impact each year.
“If we build a larger tax base and bring more money into the city, then maybe we could create funding for a fountain,” Reist said.
While local officials contemplate what additions would financially benefit Decatur, Florence officials are reveling in their attraction’s success, described as the “crown jewel of the park.”
“The fountain is everything we wanted it to be,” said Florence City Planner Melissa Bailey. “Hundreds come to the fountain each day. When it first opened, it wasn’t unusual to have 1,000 people at the park.”
Fred Boughner, Florence Parks and Recreation parks superintendent, concurred.
“It is quite overwhelming,” he said. “We had no idea it would be this popular.”
Featuring eight pumps capable of handling about 20,000 gallons a minute at full capacity and shooting it five stories high, the interactive fountain is not a splash pad, Bailey stressed.
For all ages
Unlike splash pads, which appeal primarily to children, the interactive fountain entertains all ages.
During the past three years, Decatur opened splash pads at Delano Park and the Carrie Matthews Recreation Center. Parks and Recreation also included a $200,000 splash pad in the master plan for Jack Allen. But none of the splash pads in existence or envisioned rivals the scale of Florence’s attraction.
At approximately 5,000 square feet, River Heritage Park’s fountain measures four times larger than the 1,200-square-foot splash pad at Delano Park.
“The splash pads are a hit and always crowded,” said Decatur Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Dunlap. “We started staffing an employee at Delano while the splash pad is open because it is so congested.”
The popularity of the existing splash pads generated discussion of adding more water features to the city’s neighborhood parks.
“If there were more splash pads, in the summer, they would be packed,” Dunlap said. “Could we use more water attractions? Yes.”
Parks and Recreation will push for the next splash pad at Jack Allen, estimated to cost $200,000, Dunlap said. But funding an interactive fountain is not a possibility for Decatur at present.
Florence’s interactive fountain cost approximately one-third of the $6.5 million used to build River Heritage Park, Bailey said. Funds stemmed from a $1.2 million federal grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation, capital improvement funding and a bond issue.
The park, part of former city planner Barry Broach’s vision in the late 1980s, took 20 months to construct.
Along with the fountain, the park overlooking Wilson Dam includes a playground, festival lawn, pavilion, meadow amphitheater and walk of fame.
Combined, the park’s features create a tourist attraction.
“Cities our size are typically a one- or two-day trip site, but this park combined with other draws like the Helen Keller home, W.C. Handy festival and Robert Trent Jones golf trail, we are getting to be a three- to four-day vacation site,” Bailey said.
For now — as Decatur, like many other city governments, struggles economically — thoughts of designating funds for newer and bigger water features are not financially feasible. But Dunlap said the city may consider an interactive fountain in the future.
According to Reist, “Would it be a draw for tourists here? Maybe not, but it would be an added benefit for tourists and more of an enhancer for the community.”
Florence’s fountain
Cost approximately $2 million to build over 20 months.
Eight pumps can handle 20,000 gallons a minute.
Measures 80 feet in diameter, or approximately 5,000 square feet.
Open daily from Memorial Day to the middle of August. Open weekends until the middle of September.
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Night show begins at 9 p.m. and lasts 45 minutes.

The Carnegie connection

Chatter Box
by Wendy Lane Beck, Columnist, The Decatur Daily

“The Art and Life of Adelaide Mahan” is a retrospective glimpse into the creative life of an Alabama woman born in 1872. Educated at the prestigious and innovative Cooper Union School in New York, Mahan, through her art, offers a view into history as well as her talented life. Also included in the exhibit are personal artifacts, sketches and photographs. Come explore this wonderful exhibit through Aug. 8 at the Carnegie Visual Arts Center on Church Street Northeast.
It’s not too early to make your plans now to attend the Butterfly Garden Ball on Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. This culmination of the Arts Aflutter outdoor trail exhibit will feature live music by Group 6, hors d’oeuvres, beverages and a live auction of select butterflies from the exhibit, plus new 1-foot garden-sized reproductions and complementary designs of most butterflies from the exhibit. Cost for this festive arts ball is $75 per person and summer cocktail attire is appropriate. Reservations are required, so call the Carnegie at 341-0562 today.

Reliving the Civil War

Chatter Box
by Wendy Land Beck, Columnistm, The Decatur Daily

Tami Reist, president of the Decatur Convention and Visitors Bureau, recently announced the release of a new podcast featuring the Civil War Walking Tour, a 13-block stroll through the Old Decatur Historic District. The audio tour includes the story of a four-day struggle between Confederate and Union soldiers and the history of many of Decatur’s Civil War sites.
The podcast is available in audio format in the “Videos and Podcasts” section of www.decaturcvb.org, and is free to download to a personal computer and a portable media player. An accompanying brochure is available.
Also available online is “Opening the Vault of History,” a complete overview of the beginning of Decatur and Morgan County and its role in shaping North Alabama into what it is today.
Decatur played a small, yet significant part in the War Between the States, and while I don’t know much about podcasts, I do love the history of our great city and can’t wait to try this one out — if I can get my boys to help me! Come log on and learn with me about the heritage of our home.
The Decatur-Morgan County Convention & Visitors Bureau is a nonprofit organization promoting tourism and economic growth in Morgan County. For information on special events and attractions throughout Morgan County, contact the bureau at 800-524-6181 or 350-2028, or visit www.decaturcvb.org.

Quick retort from mouth of a child

YOU DON'T SAY
by Steve Stewart, Weekend Editor, The Decatur Daily

Quick retort from mouth of a child
Before the Spirit of America’s Children’s Bike Parade on the Fourth of July, a girl about 8 or 9 years old was registering her decorated bike.
Volunteer Tami Reist, president of the Decatur-Morgan County Convention and Visitors Bureau, asked coyly if the youngster was 16. She mentioned that she “looked 16.”
The little girl just smiled and responded without skipping a beat, “You look 102.”
That left Tami speechless.
Esco Olinger, the festival’s volunteer bike parade director, didn’t say a word but grinned and gave the little girl two thumbs up.
Julianne Lowman, marketing director for Decatur Parks and Recreation and Point Mallard Park, passed along this story.

Meeting Notes

by Paul Huggins, Staff Writer, The Decatur Daily

Decatur-Morgan County Convention and Visitors Bureau
The Decatur-Morgan County Convention and Visitors Bureau conducted the following business Thursday:
Reported it had a net income of $12,514 in May and a net loss of $34,722 for the eight months of the current fiscal year.
Reported the city received $69,447 in lodging taxes in March, down 29 percent from the same month in 2008 (one hotel had not made its payment yet). Lodging taxes are down 10 percent for the year.
Reported the $2-per-night occupancy tax collected $36,341 in March, down 15.9 percent from the same month in 2008.
Reported room occupancy rates for all Decatur hotels was 44 percent in March, down from 60 percent in March 2008.
Announced it will make an audio guide to Decatur’s Civil War Walking Trail, “A Hard Nut to Crack,” available for MP3 downloads by the end of the month, and is looking at making CDs available for the Historic Decatur Tour, to be played in vehicles.
Reported that People magazine had a small feature on and recipe from Big Bob Gibson’s Bar-B-Q in its June edition.

NAIA wants Decatur for soccer tourney, but press box a must

By Paul Huggins, Staff Writer, The Decatur Daily

Decatur recreation and tourism officials in May warned that the city needs to enhance the Jack Allen Soccer Complex with a press box to lure future tournaments.
They now can couple that warning with a letter from the NAIA men’s soccer championship.
It would like to play in Decatur in 2010 and 2011, but not without a press box, said Tami Reist, president of the Decatur-Morgan County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Decatur Parks and Recreation estimates the press box would cost $150,000.
The men’s championship should generate a $1 million economic impact for both years, Reist said, so it looks like the tournament would pay for the press box.
The city has plans to spend $250,000 for parking/drainage enhancements at Ingalls Harbor this year.
Press box or parking?
That money would come from revenues generated by hotels’ $2-per-night room occupancy tax.
Some bureau board members said the press box should take priority over parking at Ingalls.
They noted the city wouldn’t need the press box in place until November 2010.
Reist said the NAIA needs confirmation by Aug. 3 that the city will commit to building a press box.

Beautification winners

by Amanda Irle, Staff Writer, The Decatur Daily

The Decatur Landscape and Beautification Department gave beautification awards Wednesday to 81 properties in the city, 16 more properties than last year. The recipients in various categories are:

Commercial, less than two acres: Burchfield Place; Cook’s Pest Control; Decatur Convention and Visitors Bureau; The Decatur Daily; deLoain New York Salon and Spa; Express Oil Change; Hospice of the Valley; Innovative Eyecare LLC; Lentz, Whitmire, House & Propst LLP; Drake & Murphree Family & Cosmetic Dentistry; Nephrology of North Alabama PC; North Alabama Industrial Development Board; Braswell, Pella Bella ‘410 Plaza’; Potter Eyecare; Ronald Terry Electric; Shelton Funeral Home; Talley, Mauldin & Peete PC; Temple Inc; AT&T; Cricket by the Creek; Progress Tower; French Door Day Spa; Surgery Center of Decatur.

Commercial, more than two acres: City View Estates; Decatur General Hospital; Deer Foot Estates; Greystone Properties of Decatur LLC; Longview Plaza; Parkside Plaza; Parkway Medical Center; Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce.
Churches: Central Park Baptist Church; Central United Methodist Church; Decatur Baptist Church; Decatur Christian Fellowship; First Baptist Church; First United Methodist Church; King’s Memorial United Methodist Church; Parkview Baptist Church; Somerville Road Church of Christ; Southside Baptist Church; St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Container Beauty: Blackburn, Maloney & Schuppert LLC; Baron’s; Changes Salon; Chel’den’s Gift Emporium; Elite Travel; J. Ross the Florist; The Paper Chase; Sykes Place on Bank.

Financial: Raymond James Financial Services; Bank Independent; CB&S Bank; Family Security Credit Union; Peoples Bank; Peoples Bank of North Alabama; Redstone Federal Credit Union; Regions Bank; Renasant Bank.

Government: Decatur City Hall; Fort Decatur Recreational Center; MCATS; Morgan County Commission on Aging; Morgan County Courthouse; The Old State Bank; Rose Garden at Delano Park; Turner-Surles Community Center.

Apartments/hotels: Granada Apartments; Home-Towne Suites; Jordan-Neill Apartments; Microtel Inn & Suites.

Restaurants and clubs: Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar; Big Bob Gibson’s Bar-B-Q (Danville Road Southwest); Burger King (Sixth Avenue Southeast and Beltline Road Southwest); Chick-fil-A; Chili’s Grill and Bar LLC; Hardee’s (Sixth Avenue Southeast); McDonald’s (Sixth Avenue Southeast and Danville Road Southwest); Red Lobster; Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburger’s.