City parks and community‑recreation staff updated the council on facility openings, program participation and planned improvements.

Felicia Rogers briefed the council on the Conway Community Center. She said interior construction is well advanced, with floors and doors in place, leisure‑pool finishes underway and fixtures being installed. The center will include indoor and outdoor aquatics, a competition pool, eight volleyball courts, 12 pickleball courts, fitness space, community meeting rooms and rentable party rooms. Rogers said the city plans to begin membership sales 45–60 days before a mid‑summer opening.

Andrew Thames of Parks & Recreation reported that Conway’s new soccer complex and turf fields have supported high participation: more than 700 children signed up for recreational soccer this year and the city has 45 baseball/softball tournament weekends scheduled for 2025. Parks staff also listed 20 volleyball/basketball tournaments, 76 expo events and 25 tennis events currently on the calendar. Thames said splash pads at Laurel, Fifth Avenue and the soccer complex are scheduled to open Monday, May 12 at 9 a.m.

Additional parks work noted included pickleball courts at Fifth Avenue (lighting and equipment installation in progress), bathrooms planned for MLK Park and Pompey Park, fans being added to dugouts at Conway Station to reduce turf heat, a pump track reconstruction at Pompey Park and ongoing maintenance and renovation needs at older recreational facilities. Thames said the city is considering future projects such as turfing additional fields and renovating Don Owen and McGee facilities.

Staff positioned the community center and sports investments as contributors to local quality of life and as drivers of sports tourism that bring out‑of‑town teams to Conway.