Memorial Field bid comes in way over budget

By CRAIG NORTHRUP

Staff Writer

Long-planned renovations of the Memorial Field grandstands might be facing an economic rain delay.

The city of Coeur d’Alene accepted bids to remodel the 71-year-old ballpark, ultimately choosing the bid from Walker Construction. Walker’s bid came in at just under $1.7 million.

The problem? That bid is batting $453,719 over the project’s original budget.

“This is a toughie, because we understand construction costs are going up,” Public Works Committee member Kiki Miller said Monday. “Do we try to steal second? Or do we play it safe for a base hit? Right now, it’s just too far over budget, and if we cannot build what is in our mind’s eye, design-wise … then we need to come back with a proposal that is within the budget, or a different proposal altogether, or a different timeline.”

Bill Greenwood, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, delivered the dilemma to the Public Works Committee’s meeting, recommending that the City Council authorize the project to go forward. He suggested the remaining $453,719 come out of the Parks Capital Improvement Fund.

The problem with that? When Woody McEvers, chair of the committee, asked what would remain of the Parks Capital Improvement Fund, Greenwood’s answer was simple and startling.

“Broke,” Greenwood told the board. “This would liquidate it.”

The committee and Greenwood then agreed to try to trim costs and present a tighter project to the City Council at its May 21 meeting.

“It’s a fund designed to handle these types of projects,” Greenwood said after the meeting. “It’s designed to make these projects work, but in the past, if something comes in over budget, we work to find other solutions before using that fund.”

The original remodeling plan involved building restrooms and women’s locker rooms to bring the grandstand within Title IX compliance standards, something Christie Wood, chair of the North Idaho College Board of Trustees, told the board were urgent upgrades to an overdue project.

“This is an agreement the city signed in February of last year,” she told the committee. “We contributed $228,000 toward landscaping and the trail, $8,000 to the destruction of the blue building, then $150,000 toward the renovation. The reason for that, and in the meetings we’ve had since, is the Title IX issue.”

Title IX requires all government entities and schools to maintain generally equal services for females and males. Wood stressed to the committee that players for the women’s softball team have no place on premises to change, and that the closest bathroom is across the street.

“Sometimes the cost of construction changes,” she said. “We get that. We thought last summer we’d have the [project] done. We wrote a check to the city for all of that last June. We don’t mind that you’re holding on to $334,000, but we want to see some movement on the project. That’s just a friendly reminder.”

To carry this analogy to its merciful conclusion, the city needs to decide whether or not to make a move before the deadline. The city’s urban renewal agency, ignite cda, is offering a $1.1 million investment in the project, but that must be dedicated by July 1. Otherwise, that funding disappears, and any hopes for a remodel dissolves.