Oval Park renovations underway (well, halfway)

The good news: After a long and protracted planning process, the Oval Park renovations are finally underway. (Oval Park, in case you're not familiar with it, is the popular Watts-Hillandale public park bisected by W. Club Blvd., featuring a kids' space on the north side and tennis and basketball courts on the south end.)

The north end of the park will feature its existing plus new playground equipment, along with a small water play area. (Before the comments fill up on this post: no, the water feature won't operate in the event of drought.) Also added will be amphitheater seating on the southern end of the park, set into the hill that's near Club Blvd., facing a small ballfield on the site. Other renovations include safety and repair upgrades. Check out the site plan over at the Watts-Hillandale web site if you're curious.

The bad news? Although the southern end of the park was scheduled to be renovated, too, that's been "value engineered" (gotta love that word) out of the project due to cost overruns. Which means the asphalt and screened gravel impervious surface that used to be vaguely recognizable as a basketball court will remain its inscrutable self until -- well, until the City magically finds a few million spare bucks, or manages to pass another parks/rec bond.

Personally, I wouldn't bet on the former.

Which makes this another project for which cost overruns and inflationary pressures from the mysterious Sino-Indian steel price cabal leaves a Durham effort a few dollars short.

BCR's suggestion: You know those very attractive "Coming Soon!" signs that appeared all over town at each bond project site, conveniently erected just before the fall elections?  I'd suggest lopping 'em off to be half of their current size, to better reflect the real purchasing power we're likely to see when the projects get going.

Then sell the scrap off for its spare metal value. We might get a couple of water fountains or DPR's famous oil-cans-on-posts trash cans out of it!

Comments

[barry]

Don't get me started on this topic . . .

[J]

While I'm grateful that the City is renovating the park, this is just another example of how the City is getting screwed by contractors. Here's what we are getting for our money: Removal of some tall trees that provided shade for the playing kids, removal of nice brick steps replaced with concrete, a new concrete trail, new stadium seating to replace the tiered wall there today, new ugly plastic playground equipment to replace the adequate equipment already there, and to polish it off: fake plastic grass to replace the natural mulch. Grand total: over a half million dollars! Yeah!

[Dave W.]

I'd encourage folks that want to see better basketball courts across town to share that with the DPR so they realize there is demand for this kind of thing (outdoor athletic facilities, as opposed to just providing small kids' playground equipment).

I've been asking them to please re-surface the asphalt based courts with less slippery, longer lasting material so you can stop, cut, pivot and do other b-ball type movements safely. I've been talking to them for several days on this issue, and get the impression that they think gravel embedded asphalt is just fine. (especially because this is something supposedly outside public works' scope, so they have to go out and get bids from contractors, who view that as a too small project to be worth their time, and things fall through the cracks so to speak)

[Barry]

Dave W. - i will bet you a week's pay that you will not see an improved outdoor basketball court at Oval Park in my lifetime.

Actually, there's no way i can win that bet, is there?

OK, in the next 3 years.

[Ginny]

I'm disappointed to hear that the park's not going to receive all its renovations anytime soon. I LOVE this park. I wrote a story about the proposed renovations back in May 2005, saying the entire project would cost approx. $480,000. Prior to that, the city paid Susan Hatchell Landscape Architecture $44,040 to design the changes. The park's master plan and Hatchell's design services were supposed to be funded with money borrowed during the 1996 bond allocation. The city had earmarked $75,000 of the 1996 bond money toward preliminary work on renovations to Oval Drive Park. The rest was supposed to come from bonds approved in 2005. At the time, I reported that $520,000 was set aside in the 2005 bond especially for Oval Park. I think the last story I wrote for the H-S was on all the 2005 bonds being approved by voters. I moved to Hilton Head a few days later. So it's interesting to me to be back in the area and hear about the city's progress (or in some cases, lackthereof on those projects).

[barry]

Money from the 1996 bond was spent on Oval Dr. Park. More money was spent when the city realized some of the new playground equipment installed with that money did not meet current codes.

Aside from that, i'm going to bite my tongue on DPR, bond money, and park renovations.

[Michael Bacon]

On a different subject, hey Barry, any word on the Duke Park renovations?

(ducks)

[barry]

Phase 1 of the renovations are "complete."

Phase 2 and phase 3, not so much. Neither was included in the 2005 bond package.

Fixing the meadow which got fucked up when the swimming pool was removed is not in anyone's budget.

Negotiations between DPR and Duke Park Preservation Initiative, Inc. are apparently proceeding for the rental of the bathhouse. Speaking strictly as an individual with no inside knowledge of those negotiations, i expect them to conclude sometime around 2030.

[Dave W.]

Barry, I’m not taking that bet. I live around the corner from Oval Park and have been trying for years to get the b-ball court there up to snuff.

At the least I’m hoping some of the other city parks will get better b-ball courts as Beth Timson told me they have a list of courts around town getting improvements from the parks bond-- here’s to hoping for something other than crappy asphalt at those and less "value engineering" at the expense of improving athletic facilities in this and other slow to develop bond projects.

[barry]

The problem, Dave, is that very few folks who live in close proximity to parks want basketball courts in the parks.

[Henry]

I guess it’s been well over six months since I've been to Oval park with my son. We drove by there last week to play a bit and noticed that it is being renovated and completely closed off. Does anyone know when the park will be reopened? My wife and I really love charm of the park and surrounding neighborhood.