Park and Recreation, Much More Interesting But Much Less Funny Than NBC Series

The Park and Rec Board's "Send a Kid to Camp" logo seems unneccesarily hands-free

Some interesting items on the Dallas Park and Recreation Board's meeting agenda today, chief among them: Today's the day the board gets a detailed look at the Samuell Trust, just two months after the Texas Attorney General's Office hashed out an agreement with the city that "imposes management practice modifications, increased transparency, and greater accountability on the Park Board and its staff." According to this morning's meeting agenda, assistant Park and Rec board director Barbara Kindig will make a presentation to the board titled "Samuell Trust: Investment Performance and Investment Strategy," which is expected to address at least some of the concerns of critics who've long maintained that the city has mismanaged properties willed to the city by W.W. Samuell in 1937, including Samuell Farm.

And for the Friends' best friends, this news: The board will discuss authorizing a $718,000 contract to build the Wagging Tail dog park near Keller Springs and Preston Road. The board will also discuss upgrading the Mockingbird Point off-leash dog park -- to the tune of $43,000 in '06 bond money just for "the preparation of a conceptual plan, market and financial analysis and schematic design for renovation and expansion" of the White Rock Lake-area park.

Also on the agenda: adding millions (and millions) more to the Africa Savanna Development design at the Dallas Zoo, and hashing out a 20-year operational and development agreement with the Friends of the Katy Trail. I should go to one of these meetings one day. But only if Rashida Jones is going to be there talking about her pit of pain.