New design for American Legion Park gets tweaked

By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
The design for American Legion Park’s overhaul seems near its final version, but at least one significant unknown must be factored into the plan.
Pat Hoagland, vice president of Brandstetter Carroll design and consulting firm, which developed a parks master plan for the city a few years ago and was brought back to work on the American Legion project, was in town Monday evening for the regular meeting of the Glasgow Common Council Planning and Development Committee, also known as the Parks and Recreation Committee.
Eddie Furlong, director of the Glasgow Parks and Recreation Department, said they wanted to get an updated timeline from him, among other things, now that he has had the results of a topographical survey for a few weeks. Hoagland said he had a few questions for them as well, first noting that $2.5 million is in the current budget to get the project started, and that would include their fee, some geotechnical work that would have to be completed once the design is set. He said that as it sits right now, the rough total estimate is around $10 million.
The plan as presented Monday generally called for an aquatic center with multiple areas and features – zero-depth entry, slides and more – at the top of the hill, where the ball field is now; basketball courts, a playground and a little bit of parking toward the bottom of the hill, in the vicinity of where the summer clubhouse and storage building are currently; and, at the bottom of the hill where the pool area is now, four pickleball courts, restrooms, an outdoor fitness area, a small dog park, and a skate spot, with that last idea being nixed during the meeting.
One of the big questions – and not a new one, as the committee members have already been thinking about it – is whether to go ahead and close the pool next summer while construction is taking place, with all the work occurring more or less simultaneously, or to try to keep it open while work is occurring in the rest of the park first and do it in phases. Either way, it was looking like the new version of the park wouldn’t be opening until 2025.
Coucilman Patrick Gaunce said they had wanted his opinion, as good points have been made supporting either option.
Councilman Freddie Norris asked whether it would save money to essentially do it all at once.
“You would,” Hoagland said, “if you could do all the demolition at once, once all the same equipment is out there, once you’re paying for mobilization.”
Gaunce asked whether it could be half a million dollars, and Hoagland said that was a possibility.
Eventually, the panel voted to close the pool during construction, because, if nothing else, of the safety concerns with all the construction vehicles going in and out at the current entrance/exit, which goes right by the pool.
Councilwoman Chasity Lowery, who chairs the group, said she doesn’t like the idea of having the pool closed for the next summer, because a lot of parents depend on that for their children’s entertainment, but between the cost savings and the safety concerns, she was begrudgingly convinced.
“A half-million dollars is a lot of money,” she said.
Councilman Terry Bunnell said preliminary discussions have taken place regarding the possibility of extending Pin Oak Lane around toward the rear of the park, but the city would have to acquire some additional property for that to occur.
The desire is for the main entry point to be less hazardous than the current one, and one possibility for doing that is to create that route from Pin Oak, the street where the Glasgow Police Department headquarters is, and, ideally, to have a traffic light there, but approval would have to come from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for the additional light, and factors such as how far it is from the next light come into play. Although that spot would at least be farther away from the Ky. 90-U.S. 31-E intersection, hat approval is far from assured. Bunnell said that it was suggested to him that the city could hire a consultant to do its own traffic study there in an attempt to justify it, either before or after the construction has occurred.
He asked Jim McGowan, the superintendent of the Glasgow Department of Public Works, how much such a study might cost, with McGowan providing a rough estimate of $7,000 to $10,000.
Hoagland said it would be pretty steep to approach the park from that angle, but McGowan, an engineer, said he believed they could get the street to mostly a 6 percent to 7 percent grade, but as it winds around, it would get steeper as it approaches the park, because it’s about a 30 to 40 feet increase, but that was a preliminary review. If that road is eventually constructed, the existing entrance/exit would become a right-turn-only/exit-only onto Happy Valley Road (Ky. 90), and it would not longer be an entrance.
As discussion continued extensively on that topic and eventually moved forward, some of the possible features at and around the aquatic center came into play, with a splash pad near the pool tentatively on the design, and it was determined by consensus that it would get better to place it elsewhere at another time. Hoagland said that would knock about $500,000 off he cost, because the current regulations also require a separate entrance, fencing and an emergency phone, for example. McGowan also estimated that the cost just to get the proposed new road bed graded to dirt and ready to pave would be roughly $300,000 to $400,000.
It was also determined that, because the current plan is to put a skate spot at Gorin Park, another is not needed in this location at the bottom of the hill as suggested as a possibility, especially as most people who are going to skate either walk or skate to the destination, and that’s not as feasible or likely for this park.
Because of where the new access point could enter the park, the possibility of moving the picnic shelter at the top of the hill was mentioned, and Hoagland said that a new shelter could now go at the bottom of the hill where the skate spot had been drawn. For that matter, he said, whether or not it is necessary to take down the existing shelter, a shelter could go there.
McGowan asked Hoagland how soon they could have the specifications ready for a bid package to advertise for bids for the initial work, but Hoagland said he’ll need to come back one more time with a refined design as discussed Monday, and then they can go from there.
The consensus appeared to be that the design would be there for the proposed new street section to be phased in, but the priority needs to be on getting the actual park changes completed.
The next regular meeting is at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Parks and Recreation Department headquarters building, 309 S. Liberty St.