City accelerates plans for splash park, pickleball and racquet ball in Holland Park

Also: Dog parks reopen.


The playground at Holland Park (File photo)
The playground at Holland Park (File photo)
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The newly-renovated Holland Park will soon have new splash pads, plus two pickle ball courts, two racquetball courts, an exercise fitness station area and sports lighting for its various courts.

“Phase 1 is complete, and very, very popular,” City Manager Jim Landon said during a Feb. 13 workshop about the project. “It is a very active park in many areas.”

The planned work will be Phase 2, which the city is beginning earlier than it had initially planned,  largely because of how popular the park has been, Landon said. Phase 1 was completed in June.

City staff presented the City Council with information on potential engineering and design services contracts during the Feb. 13 meeting, and the council will vote on them at its upcoming meeting Feb. 20.

The next step will be to get bids for the construction manager and get a guaranteed maximum price for the work, which would begin this summer.

In addition to the splash parks, new courts and lighting, Phase 2 will also involve renovating the bocce ball court, restrooms and picnic pavilions.

The playground will remain open while the work is undertaken.

“We’ll be minimizing shutdown of the park,” Senior Planner Jose Papa said during the Feb. 13 meeting. “We’ll only close certain areas for minimal periods of time.”

The construction management firm city staff selected for the work, Landon said, has done a lot of work for the University of Florida.

“You can’t shut down the campus while construction is going on, and so they’re very familiar with having construction in an area where you have a lot of activity around it, and staging it, etc.,” Landon said.

Unlike Phase 1, in which the city used a general contracting model and experienced repeated delays, the city plans to use a construction management firm to handle Phase 2, according to a city staff report.

The city went out for bid and got two proposals, and city staff chose BBI Construction Management’s bid of $40,100. The proposed contract also includes a provision to add pickle ball courts at Ralph Carter Park.

The city already has contracted with S&ME, Inc. for the design of the playground and splash pad, with a work order for $60,900 to modify the design and to provide a set of drawings for Holland Park Phase 2 improvements as well as a design for adding pickle ball courts to Ralph Carter Park.

The city had also previously contracted with Joseph Pozzuoli Architect (JPA) for building renovations and new construction structures, including a work order for $30,000 to provide a construction set of drawings for the Holland Park Phase 2 Improvements.

City of Palm Coast reopens dog parks at Holland Park

Palm Coast reopened the dog parks at James F. Holland Memorial Park the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 9, after closing them on Feb. 7 because a dog that recently used the park was diagnosed with hookworm.

The city didn’t know whether the dog got the parasite at the park, but closed it as a precaution and sprayed the dog parks with a chemical treatments, according to a city of Palm Coast government news release.

The city reopened the parks after the chemical treatment dried.

The city asks pet owners who bring dogs to dog parks to make sure their pets are vaccinated and on preventive care medicine for zoonotic diseases, and to pick up their dogs’ waste to prevent the spread of disease.


 

 

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