KARISSA NEELY - North County Staff | Posted: Saturday, July 1, 2006 11:00 pm
If Cedar Hills residents want new parks, they might just have to dig in and build them themselves.
A collective groan of disappointment rang through the City Council in June when city engineer David Bunker read the bidding results for the four parks planned and budgeted for the new fiscal year.
"We had only one responsive bid," he said. And that bid came in several times higher than the parks budget. The Mesquite soccer park, with $150,000 budgeted for this fiscal year, came in at $586,000. The Timpanogos Cove Park, with a hefty budget of $430,000, came in at $1.3 million. Overall, the bids were $1.6 million over budget.
In just this past year, Bunker said, construction costs have risen and will continue to rise. "Asphalt is going up, and concrete will go up by the end of the year. We could carpet the trails for cheaper," he said.
Cedar Hills had hoped to finish Mesquite and Timpanogos parks, Doral Park and Bonneville Trailhead Park by this fall. But the news last week left the council struggling to find a way to get even one park completed.
"Residents are going to be disappointed," City Manager Konrad Hildebrandt said.
"I won't stand for this," Mayor Mike McGee said. He suggested the pocket parks, like Doral, could be done "in-house."
The majority of the council agreed, but said it would have to be an old-fashioned grass-roots effort.
Councilwoman Charelle Bowman suggested finding residents who specialize in landscaping, and working with them to get things done.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B7.