A piece of Sedona’s historic past is soon getting a bit of a makeover.
On Aug. 10 the Sedona City Council approved a contract with Loven Contracting in the amount of $112,924 for improvements to the barn at Ranger Station Park on Brewer Road.
The main restoration work includes repairing windows, doors, siding and fascia and new paint. The improvements have been bid with the barn sides separately.
Councilwomen Holli Ploog and Kathy Kinsella both asked about the overall plan for the park and whether or not those plans can be expedited at all.
“This is 100% a staff capacity issue — this is not a funding issue,” City Manager Karen Osburn said. “We have an incredibly ambitious capital improvement program and we have for the last several years.”
Osburn said it’s been a matter of prioritizing which projects are needed first. And right now, she said Sedona in Motion and transportation projects are near the top of the list while the Ranger Station park falls further down.
She listed, however, a handful of upgrades and projects to the city’s park system over the last decade including the Posse Grounds Pavilion at Barbara Antonsen Memorial Park, bike skills park and splash pad and new equipment at Sunset Park.
Osburn also noted that the overall plan for the Ranger Station park is extensive and thus falls into the same capital improvement category as SIM or transit.
“Council can decide where it wants to invest those resources and take another project off the table in order to accelerate something like this,” Osburn said. “You can make those decisions now or in the next budget year.”
Aside from the other proposed additions to the park, Osburn said since the buildings are on the National Register of Historical Places, improvements aren’t as simple as it would be to non-registered buildings. In fact, she said it’s been difficult to find contractors who are qualified to work on it.
“Some of this is a phasing issue as we make sure the restoration is completed before we start moving into some of the other phases,” Osburn said, noting that all exterior work on the buildings is set to be completed by the end of this fiscal year.
Ranger Station park improvements to date, which total more than $500,000, include:
■ 2015-2021: Landscape maintenance
■ 2016: Environmental remediation
■ 2016: Ranger Station Park Master Plan
■ 2017: Barn roof replacement
■ 2017: Grading
■ 2018: Shared-use path
■ 2018-2021: Utility improvements
■ 2020-2021: House and barn remodel
Future build-out of the park includes restoration of the interiors of the house and barn in Fiscal Year 2022-23; construction of parking lot, landscaping, restroom and lawn between FY 2024 and FY 2025; and the plaza, landscaping and gardens in FY 2025 and FY 2026.
“This is not a project you can slip in somewhere,” Mayor Sandy Moriaty said. “This is a major, planned project and I don’t think you can just say, ‘We’re delayed on this one for a while, let’s slip this other one in. I don’t think it’s that easy to do.”
