Future community park discussed at council work session
The Vestavia Hills City Council discussed plans for a community park at Sicard Hollow at a work session on Monday.
Jordy Henson, president of the Vestavia Hills Parks and Recreation Foundation, presented images of potential playground and splash pad features at the park.
“We’ve been working on this for several years and have finally reached the point where we have raised sufficient funds through campaigns to get things started,” Henson said.
Phase I of the community park includes some accessible parking spaces as well as a ramp down to the park. The existing gravel lot would also be connected to the park with a stairwell.
The park’s features include a pavilion with concession stand, restrooms and picnic tables, a splash pad, a playground and a fitness playground.
The fitness playground includes webbing-like structures rather than typical slides or jungle gyms. These structures are made of intertwining cables, allowing children to climb and exercise.
“We started with just kind of a slide and the traditional [equipment], and that’s just not what kids are doing these days,” Henson said. “They’re wanting climbing ropes and the walls you climb.”
Henson addressed several questions from the commission regarding the playground structure, including potential safety issues. Councilman George Pierce said he was concerned children could easily fall or get limbs stuck in the structures.
One safety feature, councilman Steve Ammons said, is if a child fell from one of the structures, there are cables throughout the structure to prevent a straight fall. There is also a 3-inch rubber compound under the structures that would be another safety measure.
“We’re not the first ones to build this,” Henson said, adding there’s a similar playground in Tuscaloosa.
City Manager Jeff Downes said he would consult the city’s loss control representative to see if he had any concerns about the proposed playground.
Mayor Butch Zaragoza asked if special needs children could use the park equipment or if features for special needs children could be added. Henson said research shows some of the features, such as a spinner on the playground, are beneficial to children with ADHD or on the autism spectrum. The ground is also flush, with no lips or gaps that would prevent wheelchair accessibility.
The splash pad, located next to the proposed playground, would have multiple “phases” for the sprinkler heads, Henson said. To prevent the water from running constantly, there would also be a button to activate the splash pad that would only work during certain designated hours.
Henson added that the splash pad’s sprinklers could be removed in the colder months and those openings capped off so that the splash pad could be used for other purposes in the off season.
Phase I includes 90 percent of the plan for the community park, Henson said, and future phases could include an amphitheater, dog park and disk golf course. There are plans to complete the funding campaign and start work on the amphitheater next year, Henson said, but the other features would depend on community use.
“We want to get where people are using it, get activity,” Henson said. “We’ve been dealing with this for a long time with funds that have been contributed by hard working people, so we need to get activity out there.”
Henson said Phase I would cost around $1.7 million, although that does not include hard numbers from bids. The Foundation asked the city council for $599,000 toward the project. Of that money, Downes said the budget already appropriated $100,000 toward the park, making the foundation’s net ask $499,000.
The Foundation would like to start the bid process in mid to late January, Henson said, so the project would be ready to start in March. Along that timeline, the project would wrap up before the end of the summer.
Downes said to keep that schedule, there would need to be a first reading of the plan for funding authorization at the next city council meeting. That would allow action by the council on Jan. 11.
The next city council meeting is Dec. 28 at Vestavia Hills City Hall.
Also at the work session:
- The mayor discussed an area for a veteran’s park. Zaragoza said the area would be used to honor Vestavia Hill’s veterans as well as recognize police officers and firemen. Zaragoza said he has discussed a few funding options but does not have a specific location in mind. “It doesn’t have to be a big fancy place, just a nice place to hold our Veterans Day event in the park,” Zaragoza said.
- The council discussed sale of the public works facility on Highway 31, near Wald Park. Downes said the executives from Freddy’s Custard Shop are currently out of the country and they have not responded to a draft of the sale agreement and suggested the council postpone action on the agreement, which had a first read at the Dec. 14 meeting, until late January.
- Options for public relations were discussed. Downes suggested the city look into options for utilize website placement and improving how the city gets information out. “There is money in the budget to do this if we choose to do this, it’s just a matter of making that decision to do it,” Downes said.
- Downes proposed looking in to more “bells and whistles” in regard to auto tag renewal in the city. Downes suggested opening up the conversation about online tag renewal as well as the potential for assets such as license kiosks. The council agreed to keep conversations going and have further discussion with the county.
- The council discussed an additional capital investment for a bus route. Because those funds were not in this year’s budget, the council decided to wait to discuss future investment when more information about the specifics of the route as well as the decisions made by other participating cities were nailed down.