Staff directed to prepare task orders for Tasch and Babe Mann parks as well as work on Elkhorn’s Proctor Drive
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
The City of Elkhorn Common Council took a hard look at future park improvements Monday night, directing city staff to get a better feel for what it would cost to improve two of the city’s parks and the routes to them, combining them into one task order for alderman and staff to review next week.
Having previously discussed the projects at a City of Elkhorn Committee of the Whole meeting and determining the city had a spendable balance of about $700,000 in its Capital Fund, preliminary numbers for Tasch and Babe Mann parks and Proctor Drive suggest costs would exceed this balance by more than $150,000, according to City Administrator Sam Tapson’s memo to the council.
Tapson said Monday night even by slimming down the scope of proposed athletic fields at Babe Mann Park, the bottom line would be substantial, pushing costs above funds available rolling in all three projects.
Mayor Brian Olson said Monday night he tends to agree with Alderman Scott McClory in the fact that if the city is going to do anything at Babe Mann Park, Proctor Drive also needs to be a priority.
“What good is it if you can’t drive to it,” he said.
Tapson said he agrees and that regardless of the end game for Babe Mann Park, be it ball fields or improvements at the lake, improvements to Proctor Drive would enhance the whole experience.
City Engineer Paul Vanhenkelum said site work at Babe Mann Park for athletic fields could cost as much as $100,000 by itself, not including the cost of constructing athletic fields of any level.
“The big cost at Babe Mann is the preparation and the fencing,” he said. “When you eliminate those two items you’ve got 75 percent, but for hard ball fields, you need those items.”
Vanhenkelum said with the majority of the industrial park having 54-foot paved roads, too big for Proctor Drive, he proposes they take the road down to a 30-foot road, leaving enough material to create a multi-use trail. This project, according to Tapson’s memo, would likely cost about $300,000.
As for Tasch Park, Vanhenkelum said work at Tasch Park would be fairly light as there isn’t much to do in terms of grading and the city isn’t discussing big ball fields, but more so just athletic fields with 60-foot or less base lines to be used for tee-ball and coach pitch leagues through the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
Tapson said according to Parks and Recreation Director Wendy Meyer, it’s these programs that are the highest stressed, having some of the highest numbers of participants and the least space available to them.
“Doing Tasch as sort of a front-end priority, cleaning that up, adding some playground equipment, adding in those ball fields makes sense,” Tapson said.
Tapson said while they don’t have a final number, Public Works Manager Martin Nuss has been looking into improvements at Tasch Park and costs would likely be around the $100,000 to $120,000 range.
Tapson said the idea at Tasch Park is to make “sandlot baseball” a possibility, allowing for kids and people to play pickup games during the summer.
McClory said as much as he’d like to see more ball fields, he thinks the city needs to use Proctor Drive as “the cornerstone to begin to re-energize and beautify Babe Mann Park.”
“With the funds we have left over after that project, then we work on adding at least one ball-field at Tasch Park and the playground equipment to clean that up,” he said.
Olson said based on previous council discussions, it seems clear the council agrees Tasch Park is pretty much a “no-brainer” at the cost provided to them.
After receiving an engineering scope for both Tasch Park and Proctor Drive, Olson said they could begin to look at what types of projects could be done at Babe Mann Park, even if it’s putting ball fields in a different phase and focusing on piers or restroom improvements.
Alderman Tom Myrin said he thinks the council should for sure move forward with Tasch Park, though he’s not entirely sure Babe Mann Park is the right place for ball parks, a sentiment Alderman Bruce Lechner echoed.
“I’m not convinced yet that it couldn’t be served better maybe with upgrading the lake area and some of the other buildings in the park itself,” he said.
Olson noted the city will have opportunities for other athletic field improvements with the future Market Street expansion project.
“I’m not pro or against,” Olson said. “If it costs too much money, why do it.”
