Commission looks at drawings of remodeled Congress Springs
By Kara Chalmers
On July 10, the public got its first chance to view and comment on drawings of what Congress Springs Park might look like after it is remodeled, at the Parks and Recreation Commission's regular meeting. However, no one showed up, other than two members of the coordination committee for the Congress Springs Park project: Mark Linsky, who is an American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) regional commissioner and coach and councilman Nick Streit.
City staff liaison to the commission, Cary Bloomquist, said he expected more people to show up--at least a handful of people who live near the park. Commissioner Nick Seroff said that he had received emails from neighbors of the park about how construction would affect them, so he was surprised when no one came to the meeting.
Commission chairwoman Judy Alberts agreed that the turnout was surprising.
"With the amount of notification given and our past history, I did expect more people," she said.
The point of the meeting was to give the public a chance to add their input and voice any concerns about the project early on in its design and construction phase, according to public works director John Cherbone. Cherbone said he sent a direct mailing to about 350 households in the immediate vicinity of the park about the meeting.
"I think we did a pretty good job of outreach to get people here," he said.
Cherbone, who has worked closely with the architecture firm hired for the project, explained the designs at the July 10 meeting. The six initial drawings are very preliminary, Cherbone said, and do not yet take into account the wishes of the user groups--Little League, Pony League and AYSO.
The design consultant was told the whole purpose of creating drawings for the meeting was to get public input, before going back to the task force, Cherbone said. He said that at the next public input meeting, he'd present two or three more detailed designs that will include direct input from the user groups.
The goals of the remodel are to change the configuration of the playfields at the park, increasing the number of overall fields and to improve safety, according to Cherbone.
Drawings one, two and three were a reconfiguration of the fields that are at the park now and did not include any extra fields. The other three drawings increased the number of fields by one or two, by eliminating the pony field and, in one case, the tennis courts. All the drawings included keeping the snack shack, the parking lot and the restrooms and playgrounds.
Another community input meeting is scheduled for Aug. 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Adult Care Center on Allendale Avenue.
After that, the design portion of the project will come before the city council on Sept. 5. One more community input meeting will be held on Nov. 6, and the final project will come before the council on Feb. 6, 2001.
The project should go out to bid in March, the city will award the bid in May. Construction is set to begin in June and last through September.
"People still do have a chance to comment," Cherbone said, but added that he will come to the August community-input-meeting with more concrete designs.
|
Saratoga, California Since 1955
