FIONA MORGAN

fiona@amnews.com

The Danville city commission heard updates about parks projects from design firm Bayer Becker at their meeting on Monday.

Three of the projects are starting phase one of construction to be completed next year. John Cody, director of landscape architecture at Bayer Becker, made the presentations about what those projects will look like.

Michael Smith Park

Cody said they recently received community feedback about ideas for Michael Smith Park, including at Soul of Second Street. They incorporated those ideas into a design plan and graphics which they showed at the meeting.

Going from the West to East side, the park will likely include a picnic grove; bike trail parking lot with 51 spaces including handicap; trailhead; bioretention basin; bus stop with shelter and limestone seat wall; across the street a limestone gateway entry walls; custom water play structure; playground; oval multi-purpose event lawn; creek access point; permanent floodable restroom; parking with 30 spaces; multi-sport court with benches…

The far east side will have a pollinator meadow with interpretive features and mowed grass pathways; observation mounds with bouldering/climbing features; a new bridge over Clarks Run that leads to a memorial garden and connection to the cemetery.

The whole project will be done in several phases. Phase one will include the features that are the highest priority: the water play feature, parking, walking trails, restrooms, and the park gateway.

The phase one construction schedule is as follows: design development drawings to be done Oct. 21; construction/bid documents done Nov. 23; bid opening Dec. 14; start construction on Jan. 2, 2023; and finish construction on May 31, 2023.

Jennie Rogers Community Center

This facility is on its way to becoming a daycare, and it will eventually serve in many more capacities.

Bayer Becker presented plans to have a pickup-dropoff zone on East Main, a terraced lawn, interpretive/gathering space near the road, a community porch all on the north section, and to remove the existing drive-up on East Main.

The south portion of the property would have a community garden; older children’s play area; parking and dropoff area; on the east side a community patio; outdoor classroom; picnic grove; daycare play area; multi-purpose green and all persons field; young children’s play area; motor court; and enhanced vegetative buffer between the property and neighboring houses.

Phase one in the larger community center project is to get a daycare center up and running. The daycare will be located on the east wing of the building. Phase one will include buildout of the east wing, the motor court / dropoff, daycare playground, and sprinkler system.

Construction documents and bidding will happen from November through January. Construction will start in February 2023 with a finish date of June 30, 2023.

Tennis courts

The commission voted to accept construction bids for tennis courts at the fairgrounds. The project is split into three bids. Guardian Fence and Construction from Nicholasville was awarded the base bid and alternate 1 bid.

The base bid includes earthwork; two championship tennis courts with nets and fencing; four tournament tennis courts with pickle ball striping; french drains along edges; parking; sidewalks.

The alternate 1 bid includes bleacher seating at championship courts; retaining walls on east corners of championship courts; foundations for shade structure; championship court lighting; and shrubs/planting areas.

The alternate 2 bid includes the shade structure, tournament court lighting, and sod all disturbed areas. The base bid is $2,185,287; alternate 1 is $795,044; and alternate 2 was $885,750. The city did not award alternate 2 because they may add or change this list.

The hopeful construction start date is Oct. 24 and will finish in March 2023.

City Manager Earl Coffey said with more facilities at their parks, maintenance attention and costs will increase. He said the city is aware and is looking at maintenance staffing options.

In other business, the commission:

• Passed the first reading of ordinance 2002 for a zone change at 0 St. James Place from R1A to R1C for about 37 acres.

• Voted to purchase a machine to even out manholes on roads. The city previously rented the equipment and decided to buy it because it worked well.

• Appointed Phillip Johnson to the Human Rights Commission.

• Coffey recommended the city allocate money to the newly reformed Danville Boyle County Development Corporation, previously known as the EDP. He recommended $100,000 yearly, which was already set aside in the budget for economic development purposes. Coffey also recommended they allocate $50,000 to the Economic Development Authority (EDA) to start building their reserve until the EDA creates a full budget.

• Finance Director Leigh Compton gave a quarterly financial update about where they are in the budget now vs. the previous year. The full report can be found at danvilleky.org/161/Finance