By Debby Woodin

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

A walking trail in McClelland Park will be the focus of a public hearing set for tonight’s Joplin City Council meeting.

The council decided at its preceding meeting to hold a public hearing after approving a proposal on Oct. 12 to build a circular walking trail in the park at a cost of about $56,655.

Park issues are in the forefront of city business because the council soon will have to decide whether to ask voters to renew a quarter-cent sales tax for parks and stormwater projects. The tax sunsets April 1, 2012, according to Joplin’s finance director, Leslie Jones.

A trail in McClelland Park and one in Schifferdecker Park were listed among the projects promised residents for use of the tax money when it was approved by voters in 2001. Since then, the city has obtained grant money that has funded the bulk of construction of seven larger trails in other locations, and council members have debated whether the trails in those two parks are needed at this time.

Some residents have said a trail in McClelland Park is important to those who live in the southwest part of the city because it is accessible to the neighborhoods there.

But Bobby Landis, a former city councilman who lives near McClelland Park and is involved in local sports programs, said he has thought about going to the hearing because he doesn’t see the need to spend the money on a circular trail.

“My concern is the people using the park now are not necessarily walkers,” he said. “They’re playing disc golf. Is it going to coincide with the disc golf course, or is it something we’re going to build that is going to interfere with that?”

Additionally, he said, he does not believe the city is obligated to build a lot of amenities in McClelland Park for residents because the park is on the southern edge of the city and residents on three sides of the park aren’t within the city limits.

Another local resident who is active in promoting fitness, Tom MacQueeney, a teacher at Joplin High School, said he believes there is a need for a trail in the McClelland Park area, but he favors a long, connected trail rather than the short circular one the council has been considering.

“I think that there should be a connection between Grand Falls, the McIndoe Park and the Audubon trails at Wildcat Park,” he said. Longer trails for biking as well as walking are needed in the city, he said, as well as a free place to play soccer. He said there is no suitable place to strike up a free game of soccer though it is a popular sport. He said most people don’t want to pay the fees at the new fields at the Joplin Athletic Complex to play recreational games of soccer.

Council member Bill Scearce has advocated building four softball fields at the Joplin Athletic Complex, and not building trails in Schifferdecker and McClelland parks at this time. Scearce said earlier this month he favors building a trail in Schifferdecker Park once a master plan for the park is decided.

There is no master plan in place for the athletic complex.

Doug Joyce, parks director, said there is an existing master plan for the parks and for the projects promised in connection with the sales tax, and that will discussed at tonight’s meeting.