UP City Council OKs Contract For Curtis Park Playground Equipment

The University Park City Council March 21 approved a $472,563 contract with Whirlix Design to replace the playground equipment at Curtis Park.

The project is part of the city’s five-year capital improvement plan for the parks department.

“Looking at our park system, our playgrounds are coming of age,” Parks Director Sean Johnson said. “One in particular, that being … Curtis Park.”

Among the improvements, Johnson said the replacement playground will have a 14-foot addition to accommodate a 34-foot zip line in the southern part of the park.

Johnson said the students were presented with playground designs and provided feedback during the early March charette (meeting with project stakeholders) at University Park Elementary, across from the park.

“Rather than try to guess what our youth like to see and what they like to use, we took the show on the road, and we had a community charette over at UP Elementary,” he said of how the design came together. “They were giving us some good insight on what they think the playground at Curtis Park should look like.”

In other news:

• Johnson and the city council discussed plans for the 2023 season at the Holmes Aquatic Center. The city pool will open from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. May 1 for senior swim, open for the season around Memorial Day, May 29, and close the pool season around the end of September. The end of the pool season will be marked as usual with a Doggie Splash Day.
• The city council approved referring the Snider Plaza concept plan for various paving and landscaping improvements in the shopping center to the planning and zoning committee. The planning and zoning commission would hold a public hearing and consider the plan before it would come back before the city council for another public hearing, further consideration, and possible final approval. “I am happy to say that we are nearing design completion, and it’s ready to be finalized prior to bidding for construction,” city engineer Katie Barron said. “We are modifying the street zone and the sidewalk zone as part of this project and this will bring kind of a new boundary for PD-1R because it also incorporates the Rankin (Street) lot that the city owns and is hoping to incorporate for a parking lot.”
• The city council approved proposals from Huitt-Zollars for engineering design services related to stormwater projects. One proposal for design services in a section of upper Turtle Creek Basin-A (along Turtle Creek Boulevard, from Caruth Boulevard to Northwest Highway and between Thackery Street and Hillcrest Avenue) encompasses services for model refinement of the basin, and final design and construction documents for underground detention in Coffee Park, replacement of existing storm drain, the addition of lateral detention under several streets, paving and additional utility replacement in this area due to the new storm drain improvements, and opinions of probable construction costs. The total compensation for this design proposal is $1,463,163. The other proposal is for 30% schematic design for an area in the southernmost portion of the drainage basin (along Turtle Creek Boulevard from Curtis Park/Lovers Lane to Greenbrier Drive, between Thackery Street and Hillcrest Avenue. The total compensation for this design proposal is $1,241,952.