CORINTH — The city’s newly revitalized parks board met in front of a full house Monday night and formally pulled the plug on Quisenberry Disc Golf Course, a volunteer-built course on Pacman Hill in Corinth Community Park.

DRC/Barron Ludlum

Corinth parks officials said volunteers cut down numerous trees on Pacman Hill before city crews realized the project had gotten out of hand.

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City crews had already pulled the course baskets after parks officials realized that not only had the volunteers opened the course to play without telling the city, but they had also damaged an existing multiuse trail in the area.

Parks board members asked several postmortem questions of Paul Leslie, head of the parks department, looking for possible policy holes that needed filling.

Leslie said that when volunteers made the proposal to build the course, they had discussed the plans in detail with the city, and parks officials supervised the job.

“I’m not going to tell you that we were out there every day or they [the volunteers] didn’t take out more trees than they were supposed to,” Leslie said.

Residents who live near the park estimated about an acre of trees and underbrush was cleared, or was in the process of being cleared, for each hole on the nine-hole course.

Board member Diane McCracken told the new members, and the crowd, that the topic had come up eight months ago and would have returned to the agenda. However, the board had no quorum and had not met in some time.

“I do apologize for that,” McCracken said. “I thought this [project] was going to be coming up.”

About half of the residents attending the meeting addressed the board. Although the board and parks department had the option to continue developing the course, no one spoke in defense of the course. Instead, all the residents asked that the trails — which are used by joggers, hikers, cyclists and equestrians — be repaired and the trees and undergrowth be restored.

Jill McAfee told the board that the natural areas of the city are one of its best assets.

“We moved here to Corinth for its beauty and its parks and trails,” McAfee said.

Other parks volunteers help maintain two trail systems in the city. In addition to the Elm Fork Trail that follows Lewisville Lake and joins with trails maintained in other cities, volunteers maintain a 5.6-mile trail around Community Park, volunteer Mary Ellen Green said.

New board member John Hoeffler suggested that, as the board’s recommendation goes to the City Council, parks officials re-estimate the costs of restoring the area.

For example, he did not think a tree survey was necessary. Replanting with small trees found elsewhere in the park, and rejuvenating the undergrowth could be done inexpensively, he said.

Board chairman Jerry Mentink said the move to restore Pacman Hill didn’t prevent parks officials from looking elsewhere in the city for an appropriate place for disc golf.

The nearest disc golf courses are in Lewisville Lake Park and North Lakes Park in Denton.

The matter is expected to go before the City Council for a vote on Feb. 4.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com