In the senior room of the City Wide Community Center, Nancy Guilbault listened to city and school representatives discuss the timeline and costs of renovating Concord’s atheltic facilities at Memorial Field.
After 40 minutes of questions for architecht Christian Huntress and engineer Eric Gerade. she raised her hand.
“What I, as a Concord taxpayer, would like to see happen is once the final plan has been developed, it goes fifty-fifty and get it done now,” she said firmly, as the the nearly finalized conceptual plan projected on the screen.
The current plan for the area includes a field house, two softball fields where the football field and track stand today, a multi-purpose field with a large 2,000-seat grandstand behind the tennis courts, and a practice field below it, a full-size track around another field on the southwest corner and re-orienting the baseball field.
Rough cost estimates for the project are around $27 million.
This week, the Memorial Field Planning Committee received updates on field location proposals and parking – and considered accelerating the project to avid rising construction costs and to keep the fields available during the construction of a new middle school. but no update on cost ranges yet. Huntress and Gerade explained that construction costs for certain specific elements might be worth re-examining, and that the phasing of the project will be crucial for keeping costs lower.
In addition, the committee was concerned that if the project is drawn out over multiple years, could be too disruptive.
Considering the constant use of the field, the long-term displacement of certain sports could cause strain on other parks around the city, according Parks and Recreation Director David Gill.
The biggest issue yet to be solved is parking, as the slope of the entry to Memorial Field from South Fruit Street might present a challenge. The committee deliberated over how to best allocate parking with the conceptual design, but might not reach a concrete answer for it until later in the final planning stage.
Once the budget and final plan are approved, permitting for construction could take up to a year according to Huntress, but the actual construction of multipurpose fields and the track could take under a year to complete.
The committee will meet once more on Tuesday, August 12, before taking the plan back for approval to the City Council and School Board, as both are yet to agree on a cost-split.
According to David Gill, more firm cost estimates for the final design, permitting, and options for phasing costs, including one option for a large phase with no breaks in construction and another for a multi-year phasing option, will be presented to the committee on August 12th.
Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com