The Jefferson City Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department is in the middle of improvements to several city parks, including an almost finished overhaul of Community Park and a new amphitheater for Ellis-Porter Riverside Park.
Improvements to the parks were laid out in the parks Master Plan, which was approved in 2018 and is meant to guide the next 20 years of parks improvements.
JJ Gates, assistant parks director, said the department is focusing on improvements at Community Park, McClung Park and Ellis-Porter Riverside Park for the time being. Plans on which parks will be updated next are undetermined.
The first round of improvements from the master plan are being funded by $7.5 million in special obligation improvement bonds, which were approved by the Jefferson City Council in November 2019.
Gates said the majority of that money will be used on those three parks.
Community Park
A major update to Community Park, 725 Marshall St., began in May 2019. While the park was meant to be completed by the end of last year, work was delayed by wintry weather.
Gates said the project is about 95 percent completed. Remaining work includes signage, landscaping, and some general cleanup and finishing details such as parking lot paint.
The new park features playground equipment including a climbing tower and zip lines, a splash park and two covered pavilions with picnic tables.
They hope to have the park open in a few weeks. Gates said once the park is open, the community will be able to use the playground and splash park.
Some of that work will be completed after the park is open to the public.
Gates has previously said about 11,000 people live within a 1-mile radius of the park.
Until recently, all of the city's playgrounds were closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, but they reopened in early June. Gates said they consulted Cole County Health Department Director Kristi Campbell on opening the playgrounds and splash park, and they were given the okay to open up.
McClung Park
In March, the Parks and Recreation Commission approved a construction contract to begin work on the indoor pavilion at McClung.
The building will be completely remodeled and additional windows will be added to bring in more natural light. A set of double doors will also be added that will lead to the outdoor patio.
The patio will connect with the playground and will be included in rentals of the building.
A new parking lot will also be built to replace the current one which is in bad shape, as well as to improve storm water retention issues. Gates said the storm water retention basin is about halfway completed.
Gates said McClung is around 35 percent completed. Most of the demolition inside is completed and good progress has been made on the outdoor patio.
The construction contract runs until the end of September, but work could be completed sooner, especially if the weather is good.
Ellis-Porter Riverside Park
A construction contract for improvements at Ellis-Porter was approved by the commission in May. Planned elements include an amphitheater, new bathroom facility and security lighting in the parking lots.
The new amphitheater will include fixed seating for around 2,000 people, as well as additional seating behind and grass seating further back.
The $2.8 million contract with Jefferson City-based Verslues Construction does not include construction of the permanent restroom, which will take place in the future. Gates said they will need to secure more funding for the restroom, but they are working to get the utilities in now.
Gates said crews from Verslues plan to move into the park to begin preparing for work today.
They expect the amphitheater to be completed and available for events by next spring.
Improvements to the Optimist Sports Complex at the park are almost done, and ballgames have already started for the season.
Originally, repairs to the baseball fields and the amphitheater construction were planned as part of one big project, but JC Parks decided to bid and complete the fields earlier in the hopes of having them completed before the start of baseball season.
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June 09, 2020 at 12:20PM
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Community Park work nearly complete - Jefferson City News Tribune
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