All bids rejected for Never Forget Park in Saratoga

On the recommendation of Penner, the council authorized a new plan. WLC Engineering, the firm that prepared the last plan, will “scope down” this project by reducing both the size and work planned for this park, in an effort to reduce the cost to some $275,000.

This new plan will contain the following “plan revisions,” according to the WLC document available on the town’s website:

· “Remove all work along Pic Pike Road.” Last year’s plan would have provided the curb and gutter and asphalt needed to finish the interface between the town owned property and this public street, along with a five-foot-wide public sidewalk along the street’s one block long north face of the park. This new plan will leave the interface between the street and this town owned property unfinished and the guests and employees of the Saratoga Hot Springs Resort still walking in the street.

· “Remove all sidewalks” from the bid. Last year’s plan envisioned a five-foot wide sidewalk and curbing between NF Park and the parked cars on the south and west sides of the park, as well as along Pic Pike Road. Now a fence will probably be necessary to keep people from driving on the grass, said Stacy Crimmins.

· “Remove (the) vertical curb along the east side of the” park. This 135-foot-long piece of concrete was planned to clearly define the property line between the town property and that of the Saratoga Hot Springs Resort.

· “Revised site grading for (the) new parking lot layout” and the new layout of the parking area

· A new project manual and new bidding services will be provided for this new bid round.

This new engineering work will cost the town more money. WLC notified the town that “We have exhausted our original budget … of $7,300 for the Design Services” on the previous project in “2023.” These new design services will cost the town an additional $8,600. The council approved this amendment to their agreement with WLC.

The installation of indoor plumbed restrooms and the paving of the Veterans Island parking lot behind NF Park, although still shown on last year’s plan, had been actually deleted before this project went to bid in an effort to reduce the project’s costs. These reductions leave the area’s users with only the historic porta potties for bathrooms and a dirt/gravel parking lot that is muddy when wet.

The actual development of the park’s surface, i.e. the grass area and any memorial to Sgt. Pickett, along with any tables, benches or walkways and other landscaping have long been deleted from the town’s development plan. There have been long standing private offers to develop the park’s surface and amenities once the edges of the park are established by the town.

These discussions about the park seem to be a bit confusing at times. There was discussion about how much smaller the park will be in this new plan. Under last year’s plan the park area was to be “the size of a football field with end zones, about 56,000 square feet,” said Penner. “We would shrink that down a little bit.”

“We would get (it) down to some curb, re-grading everything, making sure everything drains and add some road base (material); that’s what we have money to do based on the bids we got,” said Penner. Where the curbing was to be placed was not discussed.

Mayor Davis said, “If we can get the general portion of it done so they have got a beginning we could give it to the group that is pushing this so they can work on it as they want to and move forward that way.

“It has been going on a long time. I would like to end it right now. Hopefully we can do it by scoping it down and getting this started and we can give it to them, and we will be done with it.”