Raoul Daniels, an engineer and volunteer coach of the youth division of the Lions Club Soccer Club, appeared before the Killeen City Council on Tuesday to present his petition regarding the Killeen Parks and Open Space Master Plan.
Daniels’ resume dates back to 1983, when he played soccer for Camptown Youth Soccer Association in Guyana, South America — which led him to a 26-year career of managing, coaching, and refereeing soccer teams.
Despite his experience and knowledge, Daniels said his expertise has been ignored when he reached out to Killeen’s Parks and Recreation during the development of the Killeen Parks and Open Space Master Plan.
“It took them $127,000 to come up with this report,” Daniels said Tuesday of the master plan. “If they gave me the same amount, I would have had three sites done.”
To further make this point, Daniels showed a picture of a multi-use sport site that he and his business partner created for an elementary school in just two weeks. This involved taking an existing site and re-designing it for other sports such as soccer and basketball, he said.
Tuesday’s meeting was not the first time that Daniels has appeared before the council to criticize the master plan.
On Feb. 8, the City Council voted to approve the city’s $127,000 Parks Master Plan, but not without some questions raised by Daniels.
“Since arriving to Killeen permanently a year ago, I tried to utilize my experience in the local community but to little avail,” Daniels said during the Feb. 8 meeting, “Continually frustrated, I’ve been attempting to answer these questions: Why is sports in Killeen so disorganized? Inefficient? And seriously underperforming? And who are those that are responsible?”
Daniels also stated that he believes that the council does not provide enough oversight to Parks and Recreation.
At the Feb. 8 meeting, Councilman Ken Wilkerson questioned Executive Director of Parks and Recreation Joe Brown regarding youth sports after Daniels pointed out what he described as disorganization around youth sports in Killeen during Citizen Comments.
Brown pushed back against the claim, saying that the city has held discussions with youth sports teams and that implementing new football and soccer fields is part of the plan.
And while the Parks Master Plan was approved unanimously, Councilman Wilkerson made the suggestion to have a meeting to discuss what local youth organizations may need; this was also approved.
During his presentation on Tuesday night, Daniels used examples from the neighboring cities of Harker Heights, Temple and Austin to show that these cities have multiple sites for multi-use game areas.
“With strategic location, these sites can be used by city kids within walking distance,” Daniels said, “All these cities also use a same variation of the same design and footprint.”
Daniels placed particular focus on the site at A.A. Lane Park which has been what he claims, “abandoned by the community.”
After his presentation, the Herald asked Daniels if he could do the same to the site as he has done for the elementary school in Austin.
“Of course,” he said. “I have my master’s (degree) in this and I have contacts in Europe, I am more than ready to help out.”
Also speaking before the council, Robert Lopez of Lone Star Soccer Club offered praise for the Killeen Parks and Recreation Department’s work with local youth soccer teams.