Bond Oversight Committee hears park project progress, modest bond spending to date

The Bond Oversight Committee for Englewood City met to review project milestones, construction progress and bond spending, with staff reporting that most park projects remain on track within the program timeline.

Andy Bethard, the city’s aquatics manager, said Pirate’s Cove has reached a major design milestone: “we received 100% of our construction drawings,” and staff expect to post the request for proposals next week and host a bidders’ walk-through on April 16. Bethard described design elements including a new slide tower and a water-play “island” feature with seating and walk‑across elements.

Tim, a project lead, presented updated renderings for the relocated farm outside the FEMA floodway and said the team has designed a new farm building with ADA paths and a rentable pavilion for education programming. On parking he said the design should retain most existing spaces. When a committee member asked about a pond shown on the overlay, Victor raised concerns that “it looks like it’s going to be paved,” and project staff confirmed the water-quality pond will not be paved and that civil teams coordinated stormwater solutions with Tyler, Cliff and Peter.

Sarah reported procurement milestones: bids went out March 3 and a pre-proposal walkthrough took place March 9. She also updated the committee on Emerson Park construction, saying the project has surpassed 75% completion with flat work, curb, engineered wood fiber installed and sidewalk pours scheduled.

Other project updates included Northwest Greenbelt (final drawings nearing completion with an added bathroom and ADA sidewalks), the Miller project (design resumed and is at about 50% with added stormwater and utility work for new restrooms and a splash pad), and Rotolo (phase one pre-construction for a bathroom and ADA path after a redesign to avoid spillway impacts).

On finances, staff said design expenses are the primary outlays so far and that two line-item figures flagged in red are being reconciled; the committee was told that 6.07% of the bond budget has been spent to date and that spent-plus-encumbered contracts total 13.13%. Committee members were told one $31,000 reallocation was completed in March to correct reporting timing.

Staff announced community outreach plans: an information-only display of Bellevue Park designs at the Spring Festival this Saturday (no formal input requested at that event) and attendance at the Mali’s Healthy Aging Expo on April 16 to answer resident questions about bond projects. The committee confirmed its next meeting for Thursday, April 23 and adjourned.

The meeting included direct quotations and project-specific clarifications from identified staff and project leads; there were no recorded formal motions or votes during this session.