The courts at Village Park in Cumberland will get a makeover following a recent decision by council.
At the July 13 meeting, members of council approved reallocating some funding in the financial plan for work as part of the Village Park Court Upgrades Project.
Parks and outdoor recreation coordinator Kevin McPhedran updated council at the meeting about the proposal for work on the courts – specifically that the park would end up with an improved tennis court, upgrades to the basketball court and a couple of new courts for the fast-growing sport of pickleball.
He said the work can be covered by reallocating some existing money in the capital plan for parks in the community.
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One issue is that existing fill underneath the court is unconsolidated and has some minor contamination issues. This has been known since 2015 when the community considered installing a skatepark at the site. Work on this though could run in the area of several hundred thousand dollars.
“This project is not proposed to remedy that issue,” McPhedran said. “It does propose a very nice, new surface – crack repair, some new nets and just generally a much-improved experience.”
The Village is estimating the work to cost about $62,000. Of this, $19,250 will come from money council had allocated for work there in 2019 and was left over. The remainder will come from money not being used right now for a couple of projects: equipment replacement for the No. 6 Mine Playground and Lake Park boat launch improvements. In addition, the Village will use $14,055 from the general financial stabilization fund.
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Coun. Sean Sullivan asked about the possibility of adding fencing to the site.
McPhedran said that while there might be a little money left for contingencies, the scope of the project does not include major fencing work, perhaps some ‘minor tweaks’ for now.
“Fencing a court of that size is rather significant,” he said. “We felt that this proposed scope of work was already a fair amount of money.”
Coun. Jesse Ketler asked about the money not being unused on the other projects. McPhedran said the boat launch project will likely involve a ramp-and-bridge system in the future and will cost more than is in the budget at this time. There are also other priorities right now for the site, such as dock repair.
As far as the equipment at the No. 6 Mine Playground, the Village has done resurfacing work and installed a new spring toy. To replace the old wooden toy on site would fall outside the budget for this year, McPhedran said. It is estimated more in the range of $20,000 to $25,000.
“Like anything wood, over time it deteriorates, but we’re not at the point now where it’s deemed unsafe,” he said.
As far as what residents can expect at Village Park, the work should include repairing minor depressions along with cracks as well as resurfacing the tennis and pickleball courts with four coats of acrylic resurfacer and adding new nets and posts.
mike.chouinard@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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