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Canal Park seeks $44K from city

By Richard Reeder

This document was published online on Monday, October 06, 2008

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Canal Park organizers last week asked the city council for $44,000 to finish the hillside park north of the rec center.

The money is to complete the park's irrigation system and detention ponds.

“When Anne Young began this project she had a promise from the city that it would help finish the irrigation,” Canal Park Development Committee member Darlene McCarty said during the council's pre-meeting Thursday. “The $25,000 will finish the irrigation. The city also promised to help with the detention ponds.

“This is the remaining work that needs to be done to the park,” she added.

Doneen Fitzsimmons said the group also is still working on interpretive signs, “but we're pursuing other funds for those and won't install them until we have the money.”

McCarty said heavy rains last winter and this spring showed that more work needed to be done on the detention ponds.

“Those rains showed us the ponds north of the Riley Arena won't carry the run off,” she said. “But we corrected many of those problems.

“We've tested the ponds recently and the tests went well,” she added. “We (still) need a culvert to get the water to the lower pond. But we've spent $19,000 on the ponds and are asking the city to reimburse us.”

Council members Cliff Main and Jana Vanata asked if the group has pursued all available grant funding.

“We were in Lander and heard there is money out there for parks that's not being used,” Main said. “I wonder if some of that might be available.”

Fitzsimmons said Young can detail what grants have been sought.

Council members Steve Miller and Sam Krone said the city should pay for the irrigation system.

But the council was unsure about reimbursing the committee $19,000 for the detention ponds.

Public Works Director Steve Payne said the problems with the detention system are not the city's responsibility.

“The problems with the ponds have come from the architect making changes,” he added. “Many of those changes were made without us or Heather Christiansen of GDA Engineers certifying them.

“The committee may want to see if they can have the architect bear some responsibility,” he said. “But I don't believe the city should pay for any changes that were made.”

Miller moved for the city to pay the full $44,000, including the reimbursement, but the motion failed for lack of a second.

McCarty and Fitzsimmons were hoping Young could attend the regular council meeting Tuesday night. The request will be on the agenda and Christiansen will attend to discuss the ponds.

(Richard Reeder can be reached at richard@codyenterprise.com.)

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