Sean C Morgan
The City of Sweet Home is moving forward with improvements at Sankey Park, last week sending out a request for proposals for a new pedestrian bridge over Ames Creek upstream from Weddle Bridge.
Soon the city will begin working on replacing the bathrooms at a new location, and last month, Cascade Timber Consulting removed numerous trees.
The city posted the request for proposals for the bridge on May 15. The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing and consider a conditional use permit for the Sankey Park project at 6:40 p.m. on Monday in the City Hall Annex, 1140 12th Ave.
Joe Graybill, staff engineer, said he doesn’t know what the total cost of the project will be, but the city does have $30,000 in donated funds to build the bridge.
“It’s a very appreciated donation, and we’re going to be putting it to good use,” he said.
This week city staff will meet with Community Center staff to discuss the pathways associated with the bridge, Graybill said. “We’re still in the process of doing the outreach to the community.”
Graybill said the bridge will run from the north side of Ames Creek, from the pathway along the creek to the Jim Riggs Community Center. The new bridge will be sited in the same area as a small wooden bridge that previously crossed Ames Creek years ago.
The new bridge will be 6 feet wide and 110 feet long, Graybill said. It will be constructed from steel because it is more durable than wood. It will require substantial work with concrete abutments and the path approaches.
“How it transitions to the Community Center, I’m still working on the designs,” Graybill said. The project is design-build, and the engineering firm selected by the city will draw the plans and build it as a single package. It’s a turn-key type of thing”
He said engineering firms that build projects like this often have their own builders in house.
Staff will select an engineer by June 13, he said, and the project will go the City Council for approval during its regular meeting on July 10.
Following that will be about a month-long design phase, Graybill said. The building will take another couple of months. He is estimating completion by late October or early November.
“If it comes in shorter, all the better,” Graybill said.
The city is getting close to sending out a request for proposals to construct new restrooms and demolish the old restrooms, Graybill said. The new restrooms, which will be located closer to the park entrance nearer to Weddle Bridge, will include four single-use, gender-neutral, ADA-compliant units.
When the new restrooms are complete, the city will remove the existing restroom structures, Graybill said.
Elsewhere in the park, Public Works has ground the stumps, leveling those left a couple of years ago and new stumps left after some recent tree thinning, Graybill said.
“It opened up the light. You hardly miss the trees because there’s so many more. It’s not noticeable, but you notice the additional sunlight. It opened the view from the parking lot to the gazebo substantially.”
That gazebo, he said, also needs work, including the roof, cleaning and gutters that need to come off. The concrete floor needs to be repaired, along with new siding and paint.
Probably next year, the city will request proposals to build a new gazebo or pavilion near the main entrance to the park in the “Weddle Bridge Plaza,” Graybill said.
The projects are part of an ongoing three-phase plan to improve and add features to Sankey Park.