CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – The Civitan Park Expansion is on schedule for completion for Fall 2019, according to officials.
This announcement is based on a January 18 meeting led by Montgomery County Lead Engineer Nick Powell and Lyle, Cook & Martin Architect Brad Martin with general contractor Southland Constructors, several subcontractors, leadership from Montgomery County Parks and Recreation, and County engineering staff.
The group meets monthly to check progress and address real and possible issues of concern about the project. According to county spokesperson Michelle Newell, one of the greatest challenges faced was the discovery of multiple large sinkholes on the expansion property, which have now all been repaired.
“The completion of the final sinkhole remediation brought welcome relief to the group gathered in the construction trailer,” Lead Engineer Nick Powell said.
A portion of the construction expansion, known as The Rotary Field of Dreams is a specially designed, rubber surfaced, multi-purpose sports field that will support the county’s special needs athletes, families and support networks. Within the 25-acre expansion, the County will complete The Rotary Field of Dreams and an ADA compliant family playground, both designed and equipped to support citizens with special needs.
“I’m eager to see this project completed. We have many families in our community who have children with special needs. To know they will have a state-of-the-art area built especially for them is something our community can be extremely proud of,” Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett said. “We are also adding more baseball/softball fields to relieve overcrowding and additional practice fields for a variety of sports options.”
Other components of the park will include three additional Little League baseball fields and three multipurpose soccer practice fields.
The difficult wet weather conditions this winter have also been a big challenge for a primarily exterior construction project.
“Even with the difficult wet weather conditions, the contractor accomplished significant progress over the last month,” Powell said.
Some of that progress included complete repair of the sinkhole; trenching for the lights, external retaining walls at the playground, continued interior and exterior work on the concession stand and restroom facility, continued work of the open air pavilions, the concrete forming and pouring of the community’s first ADA focused ball field, the start of a roadway from the current ball fields to the expansion site, and the addition of the scoreboards and electricity in the concession stand.
Work will continue throughout the winter months, as weather allows, in hopes of finishing the topsoil and irrigation work on the fields in order for the natural grass turf to be on site by mid-April.
An additional unexpected gift recently provided by the Clarksville Rotary Clubs, which had already generously contributed more than $540,000 towards the project, will help the Parks Department to integrate more benches and associated wheelchair pads into the expansion area.