After struggling to secure funding for various upgrades to the sports complex in Belmont, city officials have finalized a loan agreement with the county that will keep the project on schedule and prevent construction costs from escalating.
The county is making a $6 million loan to the city for the project that will be paid back over 10 years, with annual payments totaling $668,000 plus 2% interest. The latest plan is to begin construction in February of 2020 and complete the project by August of that year to minimize the impact on fall sports, and city officials continue to work with the Bel-Mateo Babe Ruth baseball league to identify alternative field space for games during construction.
“I’m extraordinarily grateful to the county for this loan,” said Vice Mayor Charles Stone. “Rapidly escalating construction costs mean the adage that time is money has never been truer and getting started sooner rather than later means we’re going to end up saving taxpayer money.”
The most recent cost estimate for the project is $5.35 million, including a 10% contingency. The project has been contemplated for more than a decade, but never moved forward due to a lack of funding. Prior to finalizing a deal with the county, the plan was to use park development fees to fund the project with a construction timeline spanning from this month to mid-2020, but receipt of that money is taking longer than anticipated.
Located at 550 Island Parkway, the sports complex, which is primarily used by youth sports teams, includes a baseball and soccer field, walking trail, conference center and accompanying parking lot.
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The project entails the installation of synthetic turf with cork infill on the north field, which encompasses 179,240 square feet of playing area, to create two soccer fields adhering to U12 and U19 dimensions, a baseball field with a dirt pitching mound and field striping to also accommodate lacrosse, according to a staff report.
Switching to synthetic turf will increase playable hours by at least 30%, decrease water costs by $50,000 a year and enhance safety, according to the report.
The project also entails accessibility upgrades to the dugouts, bleachers and one water fountain; the relocation of the scoreboard to improve visibility from the bleachers and the installation of an additional light pole as well as upgrades to the existing light poles to make them more energy efficient, according to the report. All subsurface drainage will be replaced, netting will be added to existing fencing to protect cars from rogue baseballs and a 4-foot perimeter fence will be installed to separate the asphalt bike and pedestrian path from the playing field.
What Zach misses is that as part of the Foster City Leve project, the culvert between Foster City & this Park is going to be fixed and FC people will have better access to this facility across the pond one might say.
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What Zach misses is that as part of the Foster City Leve project, the culvert between Foster City & this Park is going to be fixed and FC people will have better access to this facility across the pond one might say.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.