News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Bids for Cookeville’s Cane Creek Park expansion project came in much higher than expected, with the lowest bid some $1.07 million over budget.
Cookeville City Manager James Mills told Council during a Monday Work Session the city can afford to do the project but incurring expenses like these will impact what it can pay for in the future. Mills said it is a legitimate option to consider walking away from the project entirely, but the city would lose the grant for the park.
“I think we can all recognize this is a project we want to do,” Mills said. “We bought the property to expand the park and this is an opportunity, I think you’ve said it succinctly here is that we can do, we’re getting five hundred plus thousand dollars to do these improvements and the rest of it’s on us.”
City Council will consider the bid at its Thursday meeting.
Leisure Services Director Rick Woods said all the city has to do in order to stay compliant with the grant is to pave the ADA-compliant portion of the park trail with asphalt. Woods said he spoke with the lowest bidder to see what could be removed from the plans but taking out the items that could save money would seriously affect the expansion.
“He told me it was around $400,000 for the parking lot,” Woods said. “… Pavilion’s about he said $150,000, round numbers. So what do you have, then? Is the project worth doing if you’re not adding the parking and the picnic pavilion and those amenities? What are we adding? We’re adding a trail. That’d be about it.”
Woods said the bid has three main alternate options involved: paving the entire trail instead of using mulch for much of it, using decomposed granite instead of mulch, and fencing the western and southern boundaries of the park. Mills said he suggests that the city includes the paved trail and fencing alternatives in its plan as those items will only get more expensive over time.
“We can take the money, if this is a project you want to do, out of the fund balance,” Mills said. “And like I’ve said on lots of projects in the past, if it’s something you want to do, it’s never going to be cheaper than now. ‘Cause the price of this stuff’s not going down. Never has.”
Woods said the bid does not include the plan to add a restroom facility as part of the expansion. Woods said that facility was pulled out of the project and will be built by city employees for up to $100,000.
“They did look at restrooms in this and it was a pre-constructed restroom,” Mills said. “That’s what we were talking about earlier, it was nearly $500,000 for that.”
