Algood Parks And Rec Optimistic About City Park Dirt Work

Algood Parks and Recreation Director Roy Phipps said he’s optimistic about the dirt removal process at City Park.

City Council recently approved a change order that added a third site for fill dirt drop-off after concerns regarding capacity. Phipps said that the current locations at the park and at the Algood Public Works Department are close to filling up.

“It’s actually looking pretty good since the weather has kind of cleared up,” Phipps said. “It’s not raining like it was over the past few months every other day. So it’s drying out and we’re having a little more luck. Our problem is it’s just so wet that we’re not able to pile it up like we had anticipated and it’s just taking more space.”

Phipps said that the City of Cookeville is also helping the situation by chipping brush at the Public Works Department. He said not only does that free up space, but mixing the brush chip in with the muddy fill dirt can make it easier to pile up.

“We don’t know until we get done with all of the undercut what kind of volume of excess fill dirt we’ll have to take out of there,” Phipps said. “We’ll have enough room at the shop.”

Phipps said that the issue arose with the undercut work. He said that the process involves digging down to a base stone and filling it back with gravel to pour sidewalks. Phipps said that you never know what kind of dirt you’ll have to deal with and because it’s a wetlands area, this dirt is extremely wet and muddy.

Phipps said that they have done enough undercut work at the park to be able to start pouring the cement for the walking trails this week.