Changes and shortfalls
JIM MOWREADER/Press An excavator prepares an area along Northwest Boulevard near Memorial Field for the next phase of the city of Coeur d’Alene’s Four Corners Plan.
By BROOKE WOLFORD
Staff Writer
COEUR d’ALENE — An exacavator broke up concrete in a lot along Northwest Boulevard Thursday as the second phase of the city of Coeur d’Alene’s Four Corners Master Plan commenced near Memorial Field.
The City Council gave the go-ahead Wednesday for the city to provide funding to cover an additional $366,691 in costs over the original budget for this phase of the Four Corners plan. The original budget was funded by three entities: ignite cda, Kootenai County and North Idaho College.
The plan calls for several projects that will convert the Memorial Field area into an enhanced multi-use public park space with new restroom facilities and a public playground. It includes an area for parking that will be shared with Kootenai County.
Bill Greenwood, the city’s parks and recreation director, presented the recent developments of the plan to the City Council Wednesday and proposed the city pay 50 percent of the original budget’s overage. He suggested those funds could come from the city’s stormwater utility revenue and parks capital funds. Ignite cda, the city’s urban renewal agency, is expected to pay the other half of the cost.
Greenwood said some of the budget overrun is due to an incorrect cost estimate on overhead utilities. He told the council there had been “cost overruns” since the project’s first budget. A rotation of the baseball field was originally estimated to cost $30,000, but rotten poles and a lack of ground wire under the field hiked that price to $84,000. As part of the city’s agreement with Kootenai County, the city’s parks and recreation department will provide a signal light on Garden Avene, which is estimated to cost $160,000.
Another big money suck that changed the amount needed for the project came from the proposed picnic shelter, which was originally planned to resemble the one in City Park. After an architect drew up the design and counted the costs, there was little wiggle room for added design like Greenwood hoped, amounting to nearly $400,000 for the base design alone. Because of the high cost, the parks and recreation department decided to remove certain add-on items — a restroom and a gazebo — from the project and change the design of the shelter.