Councilwoman Joy Talks Downtown Park and Why She Voted Against It

Wednesday on Sunrise LBK with Dave King and Tom Collins, Lubbock City Councilwoman Latrelle Joy joined Tom to talk about the council's discussion of the downtown park, how much it will cost, what problems might arise, why she voted the way she did, and more.

During last night's city council meeting, the Lubbock City Council voted 5-2 to approve a resolution that was submitted by the downtown TIF board to move forward on a downtown civic park being constructed at 1301 Broadway. The project would cost a total of $10.8 million, of which they are already expecting private funding grants for, and will be divided into 3 phases, each of which will need to be approved by the Council before it can move forward. The location of 1301 Broadway is the former home of LP&L, a property that is valued at over 3 million, and can hold somewhere around 3,000 people at a time.

Councilwoman Joy was one of the 2 that voted against the park in the 5-2 vote, and she was asked why that was. Joy explained that the way the park was presented to the Council was unusual. The way that she saw it, there should have been a vote to determine if they even wanted a park, which did not happen, and then they should have had a vote on the location of the park, which also did not happen, and finally, the advisory committee was selected by the mayor, rather than the council. Knowing that it had already been decided that the park would be a city park on city property, Joy heard from Councilman Griffith who had considered having the park built at municipal square, as it was probably worth about half of value of the location they chose, which she thinks is important, saying, "I think we should have looked at other locations more carefully. We were not really given that opportunity."

The Councilwoman went on to talk about other concerns she has had, saying that she is concerned about who will be responsible for the maintenance of the park. This question has yet to be discussed by the council. Joy suspects that that cost would be included in the city budget, which she is also against.

Learn more info about the downtown park through This KFYO Article and listen to the full interview with Lubbock City Councilwoman Latrelle Joy in the audio above.

Sunrise LBK with Dave King & Tom Collins airs weekday mornings live, from 6:00 AM to 8:30 AM on News/Talk 95.1 FM and 790 AM KFYO, online at KFYO.com, & on the free KFYO app.