Both the project to improve the south end of Brit Spaugh Park and build the new Veterans Memorial Park splash pad are on track, Great Bend Assistant City Administrator Logan Burns told the City Council Monday night. Both are at least partially funded through the Quality-of-Life initiative, funded by a .15% sales tax passed by voters in November 2021 and fall under the 10-year Quality of Life Master Plan.
With Brit Spaugh, Assistant City Administrator Logan Burns said contractors completed the utility survey last Wednesday and Thursday, and the results will be forthcoming. Next will be the geotech study (looking at the physical properties of the soil and site) and the drainage study, which will probably be done in about a month.
He met with BG Consultants of Manhattan Thursday to go over the schematic design, which is just preliminary sketch. The design development drawings will be available Nov. 2.
“We’ll have full construction documents on Jan. 25,” he said. “We’re planning on bringing this back to you guys March 18 for firm bid.”
In July, the council approved a design services bid from BG Consultants for $85,400 for the project.
This is the $2 million project to rejuvenate the park, of which the city’s portion is about $742,000. The project is being undertaken in cooperation with the Great Bend Recreation Commission, which pledged $345,700 for playground equipment.
Included in this effort are bleachers, shade structures, outdoor basketball and pickleball courts, a playground, mini-soccer pitches and rest-rooms. The horseshoe pits will be moved and the small baseball field across from Park Elementary School will be eliminated.
The city has already approved the creation of construction drawings, which came with a $100,000 price tag.
The splash pad
As for the splash pad, “we are planning to do a pre-construction meeting and the site visit here probably in the next two weeks,” Burns said. “The construction documents have been completed on that as well.”
This will initiate the start of fabrication process. “Right now, we’ve got a tentative November start date for that and we’re looking for about three to four months, worst case scenario, for getting that completed so we’ll be having that here pretty soon.”
The anticipated cold winter won’t stop the work, Burns said
The splash pad was kicked off in June by the council when it approved the design and construction for the $680,000 project.
The city staff has been working with Athco LLC Lenexa for the design and construction of the pad north of the bathrooms on the north side of Vets Park. This would be a turnkey operation for the design and construction as Athco provides all features for the splash pad.
The contract includes all site prep and layout, under-drain , constructing the cast-in-place concrete slab and operation instructions.
The proposed size of splash pad is a tad over 50 x 70 feet which includes a five-foot concrete apron around the perimeter and a total splash pad area of 2,484 square feet. The feature flow rate is 361 gallons per minute, and there is an included 3,000-gallon prefabricated storage tank to recycle the water.
An equipment enclosure is also included in the immediate vicinity of the splash pad, he said. This would house all pump features and chemical enclosures.
Utilities for water, sewer and electricity are in the immediate vicinity and will be hooked in conjunction with the project.
Proposed is a blue, yellow and teal color palette that matches the city’s color scheme. The bid does not include shade structures or benches, but community groups might want to be involved in this piece of the project.
