Farmington's Creekside Park Ready For Major Expansion

LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER Farmington City Council member Sherry Mathews, who chairs the city's Parks and Recreation Committee, is ready for a major expansion of Creekside Park. The land behind her and beyond will have a new playground, pavilion, walking trail, tennis courts, basketball courts, exercise stations and parking lot.
LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER Farmington City Council member Sherry Mathews, who chairs the city's Parks and Recreation Committee, is ready for a major expansion of Creekside Park. The land behind her and beyond will have a new playground, pavilion, walking trail, tennis courts, basketball courts, exercise stations and parking lot.

FARMINGTON -- The plans are finished, bids accepted and now the work begins for a $2 million expansion to Creekside Park.

In a special meeting Nov. 27, Farmington accepted two bids for the park. One was for $1,070,565 from Benchmark Construction of Rogers for site preparation, a new bathroom, new pavilion and other work, and the other bid was $993,091 for equipment and amenities.

The total cost for the expansion is $2,066,656.

Site work will be completed by Benchmark for two basketball courts, two tennis courts, a new playground and the new pavilion. Benchmark's portion of the work also includes a new 800-square-foot bathroom facility with four stalls, parking lot with 122 parking spaces, extending the walking trail by 3,000 linear feet, landscaping, 800 feet of new sidewalk and a crosswalk at Broyles.

In addition, Benchmark will install parking lot lighting, trail lighting, complete drainage work for the parking lot and install water, sewer and electric services where needed.

Landmark submitted the low bid for these projects. Other bids came from Pick-It Construction, Tomlinson and Diamond Construction.

The total bid for equipment and amenities came from several contractors.

The Council accepted a bid of $211,00 from Kyle Recreation of Little Rock for a Little Tikes Play Climber with twin towers, a 40-foot by 60-foot pavilion for $130,343 from ICON and $75,127 for 24 benches, 20 eight-foot picnic tables, four eight-foot tables for physically challenged visitors, two grills, six bike racks, 12 trash cans and lids.

Amenities also include $11,500 for four bleachers to be installed at the tennis courts and basketball courts from SOPA, $206,700 for 17 Fitcore stations (similar to Ninja warrior style equipment) from ACS Play and $349,400 for Benchmark Construction to build the tennis and basketball courts.

Jim Key with Key Architecture Inc., said all the contracts for the projects are ready to be executed and contractors are licensed through the state of Arkansas.

City Council members unanimously approved the bids but several commented on the high costs of some of the items and high cost for some of the projects.

The new bathroom facility, for example, will cost more than $100,000, taking into consideration site work, electrical, water and sewer service, and the building itself.

City Council member Bobby Morgan wanted to know what the new trash cans will look like. The city is purchasing 12 32-gallon trash cans for $369 each and 12 dome top lids for $91 each. The total cost for the trash cans and lids will be more than $4,200.

"What kind of trash cans are we getting for $269?" Morgan asked.

Jim Key with Key Architecture Inc., showed Morgan a photo of the trash cans, saying the products are an industry standard.

"There are dozens of manufactured products out there," Key said.

The city relied on Kyle Recreation's recommendation for many of the products, Key said.

Kyle Recreation assisted the city with the existing playground at Creekside Park and the playground for Farmington Sports Complex.

City Council member Sherry Mathews, who chairs the city's Parks and Recreation Committee, said the expansion includes many of the projects that were in a master plan for the park completed in 2015.

To say she is excited about the expansion is an understatement, Mathews said.

"This is a long time coming," Mathews said as she gave a walking tour of where the new amenities will be last week. "We're been talking about this for a while."

Mathews said city officials, with the assistance of Key and engineer Geoffrey Bates with Bates & Associates, have worked hard to get the amenities they thought the city had to have at this time.

"I'm happy with what we're getting," Mathews said.

She points in particular to the 17 Ninja warrior style stations, a project that was not part of the original master plan. Mathews advocated for the stations to provide something extra for adults.

"I hope it goes over as well as I think it will," she said.

Mathews expressed her appreciation to the community for voting to approve a sales tax and bond issue to expand the park.

"Obviously, this is an expensive venture and we could not have done all of this at one time without the money," she said.

In a special election June 13, city voters supported the city's request to approve a 1 percent sales tax and issue bonds to pay for street and park improvements. For city parks, voters approved issuing up to $2.3 million for park and recreational improvement bonds.

Other costs for the expansion include $45,596 for architectural and engineering fees for Key Architecture and Bates and Associates.

Bates on Friday said work should begin around the first of the year and he estimated it would take six to eight months to complete the expansion.

General News on 12/05/2018