Fulton Parks and Rec projects take step forward

Fulton City Hall
Fulton City Hall

Much of the discussion at this week's Fulton City Council meeting may have been putting the cart before the horse.

In the end, council members decided to pursue more information before deciding what recreational facilities to build in what order, or perhaps all at the same time.

In April 2016, city voters approved a half-cent sales tax addition to fund stormwater control and local parks and recreation projects.

Voters had been polled, and half said they wanted a community center with indoor athletic opportunities. The other half said they wanted a baseball/softball complex off Tennyson Road that potentially could be rented out for tournament use from out-of-the-area teams. An aquatic complex to replace the aging Oestrich pool built in 1982 was also considered.

A video posted by the city on Feb. 11, 2016, stated the sales tax should raise $775,000 per year to be split between the recreational projects and a storm water system improvement project.

"The current pool is a ticking time bomb," Councilmember Jeffrey Stone said. "It might last three or four years."

"I agree," Clay Caswell, parks and recreation director, said. "I've been saying three, four years for years now."

On the table was a resolution allowing Mayor LeRoy Benton to sign necessary documents for the city to enter into an agreement with Kansas City engineering firm SFS Architecture to begin design of a community recreation center. City officials said they felt much of the design for the stadium complex could be done in house and that was not part of the proposed agreement with SFS.

But the amount of the contract with SFS - $360,000 - left some uncomfortable.

"My feeling is if we're going to burn through over $300,000 just to get to the point of making a decision, do we want to spend that money just to see what it will cost?" Councilmember Ballard Simmons asked.

Construction cost numbers shifted around some for the community center, from $4 million to $4.5 million, and from $1.5 million to $2 million for the sports complex.

Also under consideration is creating a storm shelter in the new community center, sited in Veterans Park where it's fairly close to neighborhoods and Bush Elementary, Fulton Middle School, Missouri School for the Deaf and Kingdom Christian Academy.

If the city invests 35 percent of the $360,000 contract, it will have a picture of what the community center will look like.

"At any point, you could stop if it's looking like too much," Caswell said.

He added a 42,000-square-foot facility recently was constructed in Columbia for about $5 million, so he is confident SFS Architecture could bring Fulton a similar facility for $4.5 million.

"We feel pretty confident they can build it within our budget," Caswell said. "We feel like the price is OK and it will be what we want."

He added he'd like to get SFS going within the next few weeks.

The council discussed whether to focus on one project such as the sports complex before the community center, but acknowledged the added cost of building the same community center even a few years down the road could be prohibitive for that project. Stone recommended getting the project going and not "kicking the can down the road" any longer.

In the end, the council voted to approve the resolution.