HUMBOLDT — Work on the ball diamonds and parking lot at Centennial Park is still on track to be completed this fall.
Michael Ulriksen, Humboldt’s leisure services director, said the city is finishing up the work on the park’s two new diamonds. The infield shale is in place, the outfields are groomed and seed has been laid down.
“Those diamonds are prepared and we'll just let Mother Nature grow some grass for us in the outfield,” he said.
“We're getting very close to completing the majority of that side of the project. Some of the landscaping will probably bleed into the later summer, into the fall depending on exactly what we plan to do. We're definitely on pace to complete that portion of the project this year.”
As for the new parking lot, Ulriksen said they’ve got to do some ground shaping. Once that’s done, they’ll start landscaping that whole area with trees, rocks, grass and similar items
A tender for the main parking lot area, which including paving, curving sidewalks and a connection off Highway 5 into the park, closed on July 7
“We're just waiting on our engineers to get back to us with some of the results from that, with hopes that we'll be able to move forward fairly quickly on getting that project underway,” Ulriksen said.
The leisure services director said he’s expecting work to start towards the end of July, with the bulk of the work being done in August and September.
With extra money coming from the province’s Municipal Economic Enhancement Program, the city was able to improve the connection from Highway 5.
“We had always planned to do the actual connection to connect an entry roadway into the ground, but as we were working through the design, it became apparent that we should widen the roadway itself,” Ulriksen said.
Because the city knew the money was coming, they were able to adjust its plans before it went to tender.
Another tender to do the lighting and electrical work was expected to be completed by July 9. Ulriksen said he’s expecting that work to be done by the end of the month.
“That component needs to get done right away because we have to bury all the electrical cables and things like that before we come in and start doing pavement work.”
Ulriksen said the ball development group is fundraising for a concession/washroom facility in the park. He said it looks promising it can be done either this year or next year, with the group working on design and concept planning as well as applying for grants.
“It is exciting to see that there's a group out there that is also investing time and energy into this facility and into the grounds here and it's not just the city doing everything.”
In the meantime, baseball, softball and adult slo-pitch are going back on the diamonds. Ulriksen said having those groups back shouldn’t affect the city’s construction efforts.
“it is nice to see that the groups are back out and able to get on the diamonds. We had pretty much written off this season a couple weeks ago,” he said. “It is nice to see that the groups are able to get out there and start using the diamonds, the new parking area.”
