City announces parks renovations

The city's Parks and Recreation Department announced the start of several park renovation projects Friday. It sold a $6.2 million general obligation bond funding the facility improvements to the Dain Rauscher investment group Thursday.\n"It is extremely rare for a community of this size to dedicate this much money into renovating parks and park facilities," said Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez. "This shows the city's commitment to sustaining a high quality of life for our citizens."\nThursday's bond sale was the city's first allowing bond underwriters to submit their bids over the Internet. \nEight bids were received from six different bidders including Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter and National City Investments. Dain Rausher came in with the lowest interest rate at an average of 4.37 percent and purchased the $6.2 million bond. \nCity Controller Tom Guevara said the interest rate should save local taxpayers "tens of thousands of dollars." A recently upgraded financial credit rating aggressively sought by the city administration enabled the sale of the bond at such a low interest rate, he said. \nThe parks department has targeted Bryan Park Pool, Millers Showers Park, both Upper and Lower Cascades Parks and Mills Pool for major renovation projects.\n"We cannot wait to get started on our first project," said Mick Renneisen, director of the parks department. "The community will begin to see completed renovation projects as early as Memorial Day, 2002."\nThe city intends to make infrastructure improvements to Bryan Park Pool, such as enlarging the wading pool and adding interactive water features for young children. Parks officials plan to add more shaded areas near the pool, more deck space and water slides. \nThe pool should reopen sometime next year, Renneisen said.\nImprovements planned for Miller Showers Park include the creation of several ponds to filter out sediment, bacteria and pollution. The park, located alongside College Avenue and Walnut Street near the Highway 46 Bypass, serves a storm water drainage area for 212 acres in the immediate vicinity. \nWorking with the parks department, the city's Utilities Department will replace aging sewer and water lines to improve drainage and total storm sewer capacity. And the Public Works Department is considering improvements to the roundabout in the middle of the park on College and Walnut streets and to the 17th Street area south of the park.\nOther additions to Miller Showers Park include pedestrian and bicycle pathways, landscaping improvements and enhancements to existing public art. The functional and aesthetic improvements are expected to cost more than $3 million.\nThe renovation plan for Millers Showers Park is now in the design phase with a goal to begin construction in early 2002, Renneisen said. It is estimated the project will take six to nine months to complete.\nThe renovations of Upper and Lower Cascades parks are similarly in the early stages of planning, Renneisen said.\nExisting plans feature the addition of a skate park and the redesign of two junior size baseball fields. Public meetings will be held to discuss the plans, which are estimated to cost about $2.5 million.\nRenovation plans for the westside Mills Pool are still in the conceptual phase. \nRenneisen said parks officials have determined an affordable way to fix the pool's costly leak, which engineers have isolated. The budgeted cost for improvement is $400,000, and the renovation is scheduled to begin after Labor Day next year.\nPublic hearings will be held to gather input on improvements made to the facility over the course of the next few years. Officials are now discussing a water playground in the shallow side of the pool and a "sprayground" somewhere on the pool grounds.\nAn early proposal to replace the pool with a sprayground facility triggered public outrage over the summer.\nMany residents complained the parks department would not consider shutting down Bryan Pool Park on the east side of the city. The Parks Commission quickly backed off from the proposal, which Renneisen stressed was only one option on the table.