Council Considers Civic Park Renovation

City Council members are looking over a proposal to renovate

The proposal, an amendment to the park’s master plan, includes the construction of a permanent location for the holiday season ice rink as well as a redesign of the pathways through the park.

“We’re taking a look at how we can make improvements, to provide a place for the ice rink and look at how we can improve the park,” said Steve Waymire, city engineer and engineering services manager, who presented the proposal at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Nearly everyone was supportive of a permanent home for the ice rink.

“It’s been a very successful location, so I was very pleased to support keeping it there,” said Mayor Bob Simmons. “I think when we ultimately amend the city park master plan that will be a part of it.”

During the spring and summer months, the foundation for the ice rink would most likely house bocce ball courts.

Some of the questions raised during the discussion pertained to whether the bocce courts would have an all-weather surface, if trees would need to be removed and whether it would save the ice rink vendor money.

There was also discussion about redesigning the pathways through the park, including one that guides people from the corner of Civic Drive and Broadway into the park.

“The idea behind modifying the pathways is to create more of a ‘civic green’ - or central gathering place - to make the park more welcoming,” Mayor Simmons said. “It’s a really important park because it’s right in the center of our city.”

This could potentially require moving Park Place, the old City Hall building. The historic structure currently houses a day care center.

“There was talk of relocating it, so one of the issues the city may face is: What’s the future of Park Place?” said Mayor Simmons. “I don’t know what the city staff will come back with in terms of Park Place.”

Waymire said the approximate cost for construction of the ice rink foundation would be about $650,000. The pathway renovation is estimated at about $600,000, which includes drainage and other needed maintenance work.

Although funds have not yet been appropriated for this project, Simmons said the money would come from funds restricted to parks and that it would not impact the general fund.

“Right now the conceptual design needs to go through the process to see what are the most desirable things to do with Civic Park,” he said. “Then we need to have some solid cost numbers and decide how to spend.”

Councilwoman Kristina Lawson argued the city does not have money to spend on renovating the park at this time.

“We need to set realistic expectations with the public and it’s not realistic to be planning future improvements to Civic Park when there’s simply no funding for those improvements,” Lawson said. “Even just considering identified infrastructure and asset management needs for our park, we still have a very significant deficit at this point.”

In spite of Lawson's objections, Waymire said he was encouraged by the  council’s overall reception. The next step will be to approach the Park, Recreation & Open Space (PROS) Commission before coming back to the council with an amendment.

“I think we got what we needed from the meeting, and are moving forward to amend the master plan,” he said.