Sunset and Posse Grounds parks projects now on hold

Those who enjoy using Sunset and Posse Grounds parks will see quite a few changes over the next few of years thanks to nearly $1 million in proposed upgrades.

However, parks projects slated for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins Sunday, July 1, have been pushed back a year or two because of Sedona in Motion projects designed to focus on traffic mitigation.

While funding for SIM projects comes from the recently imposed half-cent sales tax, City Engineer Andy Dickey said it comes down to manpower from his office.

“A lot of what our staff does really can’t be done by a consultant,” he said. “We’re writing reports for council and we’re going
through the agenda process for council. So every time we get a project, from start to finish, there’s a lot of stuff that our staff has to do. So most of what we do is behind the scenes — it’s not shovels in the ground.”

The proposed park projects slated over the next three fiscal years include:

  • A new concession stand at Posse Grounds Park

Cost: $270,000

Projected work: Fiscal Year 2020

Need: This building has been in need of repair and remodel for many years; however, the demand for the building was not large enough to justify the budget. With the increase of special events at this facility, as well as the development of the new bike skills park and pavilion, the demand on this building has begun to increase and will continue to do so. This is the main public restroom facility for the skate park, basketball court, ball fields, special events, rentals and bike park. This restroom will also support any pavilion rentals during the fall and winter, when those restrooms are closed. This building also provides storage for Little League and for the bike park maintenance equipment and tools.

  • Evaluation of Posse Grounds Park

Cost: $30,000

Projected work: Fiscal Year 2020

Need: Evaluate the current needs and goals of the park land. Where once it was good enough to function as just a community park and sports area, the desire may be to focus on event space, as well. This entails hiring a firm to evaluate, doing community outreach and designing a feasible space that could benefit the majority of park users, as well as identifing constraints, limitations and possibilities for mingling the park amenities.

  • Sunset Park playground resurface

Cost: $160,000

Projected work: Fiscal Year 2020

Need: Wood chips are considered Americans with Disabilities Act accessible. However, they are dirty, painful, in constant need of refurbishing and are not friendly for wheelchairs or strollers, regardless of their designation. The playgrounds at Sunset Park are highly used. There are summer camps, mom-and-child groups, homeschool groups and everyday park users who play on these playgrounds. It is the park recommended to tourists because of the shaded playgrounds and splash pad. It would be ideal to resurface the playgrounds with a new user-friendly surface that is low maintenance.

  • Posse Grounds Park shade structure and playground replacement

Cost: $466,520

Projected work: Fiscal Year 2021

Need: A design was completed in 2016 that would replace both playgrounds at Posse Grounds Park. The new playground design will be inclusive by nature to invite children of all abilities to play and imagine together. The rubberized playground surface will be ADA accessible so as not to eliminate anyone from being able to use the park. By installing this weather and sun protection structure, it will increase the life of the playground equipment and protect the users of the playground equipment. These are the last two playgrounds that need to be covered in order to accomplish one of the goals in the master plan. Outside funding is being looked into for project support.

“We can only do so much each year from a project management standpoint,” Dickey said. “We looked at how to scale back the amount of budget we have in terms of the capital improvements as well as the number of projects. If you look at parks and recreation specifically, in the early version of the budget we had a few projects slated for FY 19. These projects have been pushed to 2020 to give us what we need in terms of resources to prioritize the SIM projects.”

Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 122, or email reland@larsonnewspapers.com