Parks board OKs basic design for community center

Wednesday evening the Nevada Parks Board voted 5-0 to approve the basic design for the footprint of what will essentially be a new City-County Community Center.

Nevertheless, the board told city manager Harlan Moore that they want to be included in decisions about the final appearance of the facility and the amenities that it will have.

"There will not be a lot of structural changes in the facility," Dennis Burns, Crossland Construction director of business development, told the board.

He said that the they have divided the bulk of the $3 million budget for the community center into two sections; $1.2 million for the new addition and $700,000 to remodel the existing facility. While the existing facility is structurally sound, Burns said that it needs a new roof, HVAC and a new gym floor,

Some of the exterior metal panels also should be replaced. He said that they think they can paint the panels with a heavy duty paint to change the color to something that will blend in with the Neal Center.

Burns said they are looking at some alternative types of flooring for the existing gymnasium. One type of flooring the board ruled out is made of perforated plastic tiles that snap together and lay on top of the existing wood floor.

Burns said the Boys and Girls Club in Joplin put that kind of flooring in their gym several years ago and he would not recommend it because everything that falls on the plastic tiles goes through the perforations in the tiles to end up on the floor underneath. Because that underlying floor is difficult to clean, a stench can develop.

Parks board member Jeff Post said he would like to see a type of composition floor that can be used for multiple purposes, including basketball, roller skating and trade shows.

"If the budget supports it, let's do it," Burns said, adding that such flooring would require more maintenance that a wood floor would need.

Prices on several different types of floors will be available to the city and the parks board within a few days.

Moore said that if they go with a wood floor, they can get mats to put down so it can be used for a trade show, although it would not be useable for roller skating.

Burns said that they plan to start demolition of the buildings on the north side of Hunter Street on June 3 and have selected Todd Lawson as project manager and Neal Henderson as project superintendent.

"They understand how it works and how it all comes together," Burns said.

The Missouri Department of Transportation has approved the concept developed to handle the storm water that sometimes floods the intersection of Ash and Hunter streets, but they still need to give approval to the final plan, since Ash Street is a state highway.

On the city side, Moore said that Robin McHugh and Randy Marti will provide the day-to-day oversight to see that everything is being done in the city's best interest.

Parks board member Warren Schooley said that during the construction of the new airport terminal, that was not the case, and it seemed that the person overseeing the work was more interested in representing the contractor's interests than the city's.

In other business, the parks board also started over on the renovation of Earp Park, because of some technical problems with the contract with Son Light Landscaping, and plans to send out new requests for proposals for the project.

Robin McHugh, parks and recreation director, said that the city allows a month for the submission of proposals, so it will be July before the board can decide how to proceed.

The board also voted to have the pitching machines the parks department has in storage declared surplus property and to be sold.

Post said that since the machines are old and they do not know how long they would function before they break.

He said that he had researched new pitching machines and the city can purchase new ones for $30,000 to $40,000.

"It will be better to sell the existing machines and get all new ones, than to spend $90,000 to set up the old machines that may never work," Post said reluctantly.

Setting up the pitching machines has been a pet project of Post's since he was appointed to the parks board.