Contractors Hired For Park’S Next Phase

Sat., July 15, 2000

By Stacy Schwandt stacys@spokesman.com

The county Parks and Recreation department hired contractors on Wednesday to begin the second phase of construction at the Plantes Ferry Park Sports Complex.

A M Irrigation will begin the work of removing and sifting topsoil for three new softball fields and eight new soccer fields in a few weeks. The new fields will be located east of the park’s seven existing fields off Upriver Drive.

T.C. Sherry & Associates will begin installing sprinklers and landscaping the fields in September or October. The parks department hopes they will begin seeding the fields by late fall. The parks are scheduled to be ready for play by spring 2002.

“We’re anxious to get this started,” said Parks Maintenance Manager Bob Hughes. “We’ve had some delays because our funding sources are not well defined. We’ve had to rely on contributions and donations that were slow to occur.”

In fact, officials at the parks department are still searching for money for the two parking lots that will add 400 new spaces to the complex. They plan to apply for a grant from Microsoft millionaire Paul Allen.

Hughes doesn’t expect the pending construction to interfere with play on the other fields.

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