Local park projects moving forward

By Geoffrey Woehlk | October 28, 2024 |

SUBMITTED RENDERING
A concept rendering of a dog park set to be built in an existing portion of Sunrise Park across from the New Nodaway Humane Society.

MARYVILLE, Mo. — Multiple park projects are moving ahead as Maryville Parks and Recreation gears up for a big 2025.

During the regular parks board meeting last week, MPR Director Jeff Stubblefield said that the pickleball court project at Beal Park and the Sunrise Bark Park dog park project are both close to ready to enter the design phase, and the bridge project at Judah Park is almost ready for construction bidders with an eye toward spring work.

All three were among the significant projects highlighted by MPR that will be funded by the parks sales tax approved by voters in April 2022.

The pickleball project will see some tennis courts at Beal Park converted into pickleball courts — the fastest growing sport in the country, according to the admittedly partisan USA Pickleball.

The dog park, planned to go in on the portion of the existing Sunrise Park that borders Depot Street across from the New Nodaway Humane Society, was far and away the most requested new feature in a wide-ranging survey put out by MPR in 2021.

While preliminary plans for the park have been underway for years, the project is nearly ready to be put out to design firms for bidding, Stubblefield said. The city is also planning to realign part of Depot Street to coincide with the Bark Park project.

The Judah Park bridge project has probably been the most complicated project that MPR has undertaken over the past few years despite the relative simplicity of the work itself: replacing two deteriorating bridges that span Peach Creek in the park.

The city has maintained for nearly a decade now that the word “creek” is a bit of a stretch for what is a drainage channel that begins at the university, winds its way through the community through Judah Park, across Munn Avenue, south to State Route V and out of the city limits. Nonetheless, the Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency disagree, claiming jurisdiction over the creek through the EPA’s Waters of the United States rule that gives federal jurisdiction over waters used for interstate commerce. Peach Creek qualifies because it flows into White Cloud Creek, which flows into the One Hundred and Two River, which flows into the Platte River, which eventually flows into the Missouri River.

The city has been careful about projects impacting Peach Creek since running afoul of the rule in 2016 and getting a slap on the wrist from the Corps of Engineers.

Consequently, the bridge replacement project has proceeded slowly over the past few years to ensure that it won’t affect the water quality of the creek. The Corps of Engineers finally gave its blessing to the project last year as long as the new bridge doesn’t touch the water. Design is complete and the project will be put out for construction bids soon, Stubblefield said, with a goal to begin in spring 2025.

Other MPR notes

Another major project, an analysis of future aquatic center options, is moving forward as well. Stubblefield said last week that Water’s Edge Design has nearly completed a preliminary draft of a report on aquatic center options and representatives from the firm will likely meet with the parks board sometime next month at a time to be determined. The report will lay out the feasibility of future aquatic center options including constructing a new outdoor facility, building a new indoor-outdoor pool and renovating the existing facility.
Stubblefield told the board that if state Proposition A passes in November, he would likely recommend raising fees before January 2026 when the minimum wage would increase to $15. He said the 2025 budget already accounts for the raise to $13.50 on Jan. 1, 2025, if the proposition passes.