Council learns cost estimates of wellness park

Dave Mitchell gave the Washington City Council an update on the planning for a wellness park. Mitchell and Greg Woller co-chair the Comprehensive Planning Committee, which has produced an estimated cost of the facility based on the amenities that residents sought according to a city survey. The proposals that Mitchell presented to the council Wednesday would be for a 46-acre park costing about $4.3 million and an 86-acre park costing about $6.7 million. Mitchell said the estimates for both of those were at the high end and that the real costs could be as much as 25 percent less.

Mitchell said that a group of volunteers convened five years ago to plan a wellness park. The problem they ran into was that they didn?t know how much land they would have to work with. Now that the city has 90 acres of land on the north side of town set aside for a wellness park, that problem has been solved. However, Mitchell said he is not assuming the wellness park will be built on those 90 acres in particular.

The council gave Mitchell and the committee two assignments Wednesday: to conduct a new survey of what people in town want in a wellness park and to find out what amenities wellness parks have in other towns.

The large park for $6.7 million would include two soccer fields, six ballfields, four tennis courts, two basketball courts, four sand volleyball courts, a small pond, a large pond, a concession stand, a pavilion, a restroom, three shelters and a playground. The small park for $4.3 million would include only four ballfields, only one pond, no volleyball courts and no soccer fields. Mitchell said these designs were made before the council agreed to set aside 9.5 acres of the 90 acres for four soccer fields.

Councilor Bob Shellmyer asked Mitchell if he expected the city to contribute to the wellness park. Mitchell said the committee intended to use the city?s land but that the capital improvements would all be funded privately. Shellmyer asked him if the city would be responsible for maintaining the park after it was built and Mitchell said yes.

Shellmyer suggested that the city sell its farmland acres to get out of debt and then give the committee $150,000 as seed money for the wellness park.

?We sit here with an overdraft of $480,000 talking about trying to raise $6.8 million,? Shellmyer said. ?Were the city to give you $150,000 as seed money, could you get property and get things going??

Mitchell said he didn?t think the wellness park could be built without using city land.