By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The Mesquite City Council approved three items, during a meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 26, that pertain to the funding of new facilities planned for the coming months.
These three items included 1.) appropriating additional funding to cover a new All Wheels Park; 2.) entering a construction agreement on a new Fire Station No.1; and 3.) allocating funding for architectural work on a proposed expansion of the city’s Animal Control building.
All Wheels Park
The council voted to approve the allocation of $500,000 from the City’s Park Impact fee fund to help in construction of an All Wheels Park being proposed at Woodbury Park just south of the Virgin Valley Elementary School.
In some introductory comments, City Engineer Travis Anderson explained that a public input meeting about the new park was held earlier this month with “great participation.” The ideas from the meeting were then submitted to the park design firm to be incorporated into the plans, he said.
“When they brought that back to us, it was shown that the cost was projected to be about $1.9 million for design and construction of the park,” Anderson said. “With the CDBG grant that we had lined up to pay for the project, we have $1.5 million available. So we are asking to use $500,000 from the Park Fund to cover the gap. That fund is there for the building of new parks in the city so it fits very well with this.”
During council comments, Councilwoman Karen Fielding asked City Attorney Brian Pack questions about where the Park Funds come from and how they should be used.
Pack explained that the fund comes from a residential construction tax of $1,000 for each new-build home in the city.
“We can use it for new parks anywhere in the city,” Pack added. “It is not designated for any specific neighborhood.”
“There is actually a requirement that we use the fund fairly frequently within a certain timeframe,” Pack added. “So it is good to dip into this fund on occasion and use it so we don’t run afoul of those rules.”
Councilman Wes Boger made the motion to approve the allocation of the Park funds to the project. The motion was adopted with a unanimous vote of the Council.
Fire Station #1 agreement
The council voted to approve a Construction Services Agreement with Core Construction for the new Fire Station #1 building proposed on the parcel just south of the Mesquite Library building.
By way of explanation, Anderson said that Core had, in keeping with standard CMAR practices, obtained multiple bids for all of the subcontracting trades on the project. These bids were fully evaluated for completeness and value, he added.
The company then submitted the guaranteed maximum price for the new fire station at $11,431,678.
Anderson said that he was pleased with this figure. “Some of the early estimates of this project were even higher than $12 million,” he said. “So this is good. They sharpened their pencils and did a great job of getting bids from multiple trades. So we are excited for this project.”
Boger made a motion to approve the construction agreement. The vote adopted the motion unanimously.
Mayor Al Litman noted that the groundbreaking for the new fire station would be held on site on Thursday, October 5 at 10 pm. The public is welcome.
Design for animal control expansion
The council voted to allocated $150,000 from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds for the architectural design on a proposed future expansion to the Mesquite Animal Control building.
Councilwoman Patti Gallo, who has championed the expansion, expressed appreciation to various city officials for being supportive of beginning the process of expanding the facility.
“Right now we are at about 25 animals at that facility,” Gallo said. “The reason that we need this expansion is that those animals need to be fed, they need to be cleaned, their cages need to be cleaned mutliple times a day, and right now we just don’t have the space to make that happen.”
Gallo made a motion to approve the allocation of funds. The vote was unanimous in support of the motion.
