Springdale Officials Looking For Savings in Park Construction

Low Bid Exceeds Money Remaining in Park Construction Fund

SPRINGDALE -- City officials will have to forgo some amenities at a new southeast city park, and, possibly, any development at a new northwest park because there isn't enough money to pay for the work planned.

A bond sale, approved by voters in 2012, raised $16.1 million for parks. Land was bought for the parks, but the best construction bid for the southeast park was more than the remaining money available from the bonds, said Mayor Doug Sprouse.

At A Glance

Springdale Parks

• Murphy Park, 501 S. Pleasant St.

• J.B. Hunt Park, 1955 Fleming St.

• Randal Tyson Complex, 4303 Watkins Ave.

• Luther George Grove Street Park, corner of Grove and Park streets

• Bayyari Park, 2400 Deer Valley St.

• Bobby Hopper Park, 399 Upton St.

Source: Staff Report

City officials met Thursday with the low bidder and engineering firm representatives to see if cost for the southeast park could be reduced, Sprouse said.

"Everyone came up with great ideas to reduce the cost," Sprouse said.

The meeting was very productive, said Alderman Brad Bruns, chairman of the City Council Parks and Recreation Committee.

"I think we will come up with a plan to have a successful park that city residents can be proud of," Bruns said.

The low bid was $13.6 million to build four youth baseball fields, six soccer fields, a football practice field and other amenities on property the city bought at the southwest corner of the intersection of Don Tyson Parkway and Hylton Road. Engineers estimated the cost at $12.6 million.

The northwest park will be on the east side of Ball Road, between Downum and County Line roads.

The property, about 180 acres, cost $2.77 million. Almost another $1 million was spent on design and miscellaneous costs, according to Alan Pugh, city director of engineering. That left $12.59 million to spend, well short of the low bid by Milestone Construction.

The bids for the southeast park included two possible reductions. The cost of synthetic turf for the youth baseball fields were deductive alternates and could be removed from the contract, Pugh said. Going to grass outfields would removed $700,000 from the bid, according to a tabulation sheet. Going to grass infields would only drop the cost $11,685 since additional irrigation and better draining soil would be needed.

"We wanted to see what those costs would be since we expect the fields to be heavily used," Pugh said. "I think we'd like to keep the turf on the infield, if possible."

The baseball fields will be important, said Jay Pounders, who ran youth baseball leagues in the city for over 20 years.

The fields can be used to hold weekend tournaments that bring visitors to the city, Pounders said.

"A tournament call fill up all the hotels in the city," Pounders said. "That's a lot of people spending money."

At one time, a tournament could be held with four fields, Pounders said, but those days are gone.

"You need seven, eight, nine, even 10 fields," Pounders said. "We had four fields and could use three softball fields to get by."

Other amenities in the new park could be saved, Sprouse said, including playgrounds, pavilions and concession stands.

"We need to get the construction costs down to $10 million or $11 million," Sprouse said.

The original plan called for any money left from developing the southeast park to go to building softball fields in the northwest park, Sprouse said.

"Those fields may have to wait," Sprouse said. "We'll develop those as we can."

The City Council looked Tuesday at reducing street projects paid for by money raised during the same bond sale. The street and park money are separate funds and can't be used to pay for other projects, according to state law.

NW News on 06/13/2014

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