By Rudy Hemmann

The Surveyor

On Thursday, June 13, 2019, Town Administrator Chris Kirk and Director of Parks and Recreation Jeremy Olinger sat for an interview to discuss ongoing and upcoming projects related to the Parks and Recreation Department.

At the start of the session Kirk was asked to identify which projects, in his mind, would be the five or six top projects. His list follows. Olinger furnished dates when each project should be either starting or nearing completion. Dates are in parenthesis.

Replacement of the Bein Park playground equipment. (Should be done September 2019.)

New dock at Robert’s Park pond – from “Fishing is Fun” grant. (Should be done September 2019.)

Berthoud Reservoir – Completion of landscaping, parking lot completion, etc. (Should begin fall 2019 or spring 2020 and will take six to eight months to complete.)

Waggener Farm Park – (This is an ongoing project.)

Trails in Heron Lakes subdivision – (This is an ongoing project.)

Park maintenance building expansion – (Project timeline “will be interesting.”)

Kirk stated design plans for Berthoud Reservoir are done and are “out to bid,” with construction to begin in late summer to early fall of this year.

The new dock /pier at Robert’s Park will be ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) compliant.

He also mentioned as an aside that the powder-activated carbon system at the raw-water treatment plant should be online by the time this edition of the Surveyor comes out.

Kirk informed the concept plan for the parking lot at the Heron Lakes trailhead is done, as is the plan for the layout of the Heron Lakes trail system. This includes the trail layout for the tract referred to as the peninsula. The town’s portion of the trail system is complete to Larimer County Road 14, stated Olinger. Kirk added it will be up to the county and Loveland to complete the connection to Loveland’s trail system.

Discussion ensued with Kirk speculating regarding where future trail connections could be made and where the best place would be for a pedestrian crossing over Highway 287.

Regarding access to Berthoud Reservoir, Kirk stated access to the reservoir, at least initially, will be off of Berthoud Parkway to a parking lot along the northwest side of the reservoir. “There will be restrooms, trail improvements, a playground, an ADA-accessible floating dock, and a picnic area,” said Olinger.

The design portion of the Waggener Park master plan is complete and has been shared with the PORT (Parks, Open space, Recreation and Trails) committee where it was well received for the most part, according to Kirk. “From a design perspective, the designers did a nice job of incorporating the agricultural heritage of the area into the concept for the park,” stated Kirk. Some of the items mentioned by him to achieve the desired effect include; a fruitless orchard, a long tree-lined drive to the parking lot, and the building is designed to look like a farmhouse with some outbuildings.

Concerning the pool, Kirk stated flatly, “We are going to revise the pool design, unless the board tells me not to, and I’d be surprised if they did,” said Kirk, “With the school district not wanting to partner – we never intended to build a competition pool, but we thought this might be an opportunity. We laid it out and studied it … without their partnership, three or four lap lanes is enough for us. We can still run practices there, do lap swim, we just can’t hold meets, and that’s OK. Costs associated with building (and maintaining) a competition pool are extremely high with little return.”

Kirk stated he hoped the pool would be an indoor facility, even though the costs associated with the building, mechanical equipment and air handlers totally changes the way the pool operates. However, it also changes things in good ways, such as people being more interested in buying an annual membership to a facility with a year ‘round pool vs. one with a pool open two to three months.

According to Kirk town tax receipts are up considerably.

Olinger reported no trees are scheduled to be removed from Fickel Park for the foreseeable future.

Sprucing-up the First Street roundabout – Kirk stated this was an overly complicated issue. To begin with it is located on a CDOT-controlled highway. It requires landscaping which street crews are not familiar with maintaining, and the parks crews are not comfortable working in places that are high-traffic areas. Kirk and Olinger agreed something needs to be done and they are looking at alternatives, and, of course, anything they come up with requires CDOT approval.