The application for an Outdoor Recreation grant seeks $25,000 toward demolition and replacement of the city’s tennis courts at Depot Park.
Preliminary cost estimates for the project suggested a price tag in the $380,000 to $450,000 range. However, city engineer Jon Olson with Apex Engineering Group presented a final design for the parks board’s approval, estimating up to $580,000 that raised concerns about the funding requirements for the local match.
Olson said the actual amount of contractors’ bids for the project may be somewhat less than that amount, depending on the bidders.
With the city council’s support needed before submitting the grant application, and only two council meetings – March 9 and 23 – before the March 26 deadline for submission, grant writer Tom Stursa questioned whether the city can show it has money in hand to cover the match. Without it, he said, the DNR most likely will not consider the application.
The design includes removing the existing asphalt courts, correcting a subsurface soil structure that is vulnerable to frost expansion, and replacing the asphalt with longer-lasting, post tension concrete. Other improvements would include new fencing around the courts and a sidewalk upgrade to meet current accessibility standards for people with disabilities.
Olson said the cost increase since last fall may be partly due to higher prices of some construction materials, such as diesel and steel for the fencing. He also hinted that grant funding may increase labor costs through required wage rates.
Mainly, Olson thought what made the difference was the soil boring study, which showed the need to remove the existing courts and correct the substrate before building new. He said this may not have been taken into account last fall, when it was thought that the new court surface could overlay the old.
Reconstruction of the Depot Park Tennis Courts will require correction of the subsurface soil structure, adding significantly to the cost of the project. (Courtesy of Apex Engineering Group)
He suggested cheaper alternatives, such as using asphalt again. However, Kathy Peterson with the Park Rapids Tennis Association (PRTA) stressed the importance of the concrete design as being longer-lived than the current asphalt, which began to fail within 20 years.
City Planner Andrew Mack suggested that the parks board could also reconsider the location of the courts, due to the soil issues where they are now. He also noted that the current balance of the city’s Park Improvement Fund would only cover about 25 percent of the additional cost.
Asked whether the city maintenance budget could absorb parts of the cost, for example, to upgrade the sidewalk, public works superintendent Scott Burlingame said the city does not have a sidewalk construction crew.
Peterson said that within 24 hours of seeing the new cost estimates, she was able to raise an additional $25,000 in funding commitments from donors, but she did not think she would be able to raise the remaining amount of the increased match by March 23.
Instead, Peterson said she would like the city council to commit to funding the full match, and trust the PRTA to fundraise the full amount before the project is completed. She said the tennis association has a proven history of raising any funds needed.
City council representative Liz Stone said she would support this, but she could not speak on behalf of the city council as a whole.
No one in the meeting could recall whether a dollar amount cap had been placed on the 20 percent city match the council had previously agreed to. Stursa said he was waiting to hear back from the DNR for clarification about whether this 20 percent must come out of city coffers or if donations raised by the PRTA would count.
“If it’s not out of tax coffers,” Peterson said, “it means we’re not asking the city to commit out of their coffers more than what they did prior to this increase. But then, we’d be asking that the city still permit the resolution, when they sign it, to cover the rest of the cost beyond the grant. If they can’t cover it, it would be in faith that as a tennis association, we will continue to work and cover that difference, to be able to get post tension – if, again, the grant is granted.”
Board chair Sue Cutler moved to recommend the city council’s approval of the grant application. The motion passed without dissent.
The parks board also discussed and approved a recommendation that the city work with the Minnesota Department of Transportation to build a temporary trail crossing of U.S. Hwy. 71 at Beach Road, part of a plan to demonstrate the need for legislative funding for the Heartland Trail extension.
Other discussion touched on a proposed mural at Pioneer Park, a study of decorative grass plantings to replace the flowerbeds at Red Bridge Park, and thanks and best wishes to Mack, whose last day of employment with the city will be March 19.
The city council’s next meeting is scheduled for noon Monday, April 12.