City hears update on Wald Park options

The Vestavia Hills City Council continues to discuss the various options in front of them pertaining to the third phase of Wald Park, one of the final pieces of the Community Spaces Plan to be completed.

At the Dec. 13 meeting, Raynor Boles with TCU Consulting, the city’s project manager for Community Spaces, presented multiple options for the council to consider.

Option one would be to accept the bid as originally presented, with some potential cost adjustments from partnering with private stakeholders for a final cost of about $3.9 million. Those stakeholders might provide private funding in exchange for certain programmatic amenities. Nothing has been agreed upon by or presented to the council in that regard, said the city’s communications director, Cinnamon McCulley.

Option two would stabilize the northern end of Wald Park and prepare the site for future programming, at a cost of roughly $2.3 million.

“We have to stabilize Wald Park regardless,” McCulley said.

The northern end of the park would be set off in “tiers,” Boles said, because of the land’s topography, allowing the city to have some flexibility when it comes to programming.

Option three would be the roughly $5 million construction of the entire tennis complex at what is now soccer fields at the former Vestavia Hills Elementary Central campus. As previously reported, that complex would include 12 tennis courts and a pavilion. Option four would include eight courts at Central but no pavilion, a cost of about $3.25 million. The council could change the scope of those projects if so desired.

Council member Paul Head suggested possibly pursuing both options two and four, giving the city tennis courts at Central while allowing for future flexibility at Wald Park. Council member Rusty Weaver said the opportunity at Central may not last forever, as the school system will eventually use that field for something.

Resident David Harwell told the council placing the courts at Wald Park gives the city complete control, while placing them at Central would mean coordinating with the Board of Education. Harwell said it would be important to ensure residents would have access to the courts if they were not in use by the school system, should they be located at Central.

City Manager Jeff Downes made a public apology to the family of Shawntel Jones, who has a track at Central named after her. Downes said he was unaware when the council began talking about using the Central fields and converting them to tennis, which would do away with the track named in her honor. Jones was active in the community, especially in sports. Downes said he’s met with Jones’ father, Walter, to apologize and told him the council would “work hard to prevent this type of thing happening again.”

In other news, the council approved a drainage improvement project at Kyle Lane, agreeing to pay Southeastern Sealcoating about $192,000 to replace a collapsed corrugated metal pipe, though Downes said the project could be delayed due to how long it may take to get a concrete culvert, which will also be added at the site.

The council also approved an agreement which will allow the city to receive settlement money from a lawsuit brought by the state of Alabama on behalf of municipalities against Endo Pharmaceuticals for their role in the opioid crisis. Tommy Dazzio, who represents the city on the matter, said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall settled with the company, and asked for 100% agreement with the state’s municipalities by Dec. 20; otherwise, the settlement may fall apart. Settlement monies would be split amongst the state’s municipalities by a formula, and must be used to combat the opioid crisis.

The council also approved a roughly $249,000 bid from Sprinturf to resurface and add turf at the Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex, as well as authorizing Downes to purchase accessory structures and other items for the dog park to be located at the SHAC. The dog park is funded by a grant from the Alabama Mine Land Reclamation Economic Development Pilot Program, worth up to $300,000.

In other business, the council:

Approved a memorandum of understanding agreement with Jefferson County for storm debris removal

Reappointed Larry Cochran to the Vestavia Hills Library Board and Kirk McCulley to the Vestavia Hills Parks and Recreation Board