Friday, July 07, 2006

Paving Art Dye Park

With Steel Days upon us, friends have been asking why so many of the events were moved to Art Dye park. There are two reasons: First, the park is a great setting -- even if it is a diamond still in the rough. Second, the high school, wanting to protect its newly refinished track, no longer felt right about hosting the Big Show.

So, in order to provide a positive experience for Steel Days, as well as to continue needed upgrades to Art Dye Park, the City awarded a bid to Geneva Rock to complete the paving of the parking lot and access road. This is the most urgent of many needed upgrades recommended by the Parks Task Force for Art Dye park. Paving here and also at Hunter Park were to have been completed by July 1 of this year.

Unfortunately, a fly fell into the ointment. Owing to an unprecedented and unforeseen shortage in the supply of liquid asphalt oil (see Tribune article here), Geneva was unable to complete the paving in time for Steel Days.

Fortunately, Geneva Rock is committed to mitigating the effects of the delay without compromising the final product. Engineering and grading at Art Dye will be complete before Steel Days. Road base will be complete or mostly complete before Steel Days. (If it is only mostly complete, care will be taken to assure a smooth transition between the completed section and the remainder.)

Road base will be a much nicer surface for parking and walking than the present surface, but it will still be dusty. Fortunately, the firm has also agreed to water the road base on a regular basis during Steel Days. This will help quite a bit.

Asphalting and installation of curb and gutter will be delayed until Steel Days is over. This will help assure the quality of the end product. Rushing the process is not only impractical at this point; it could also compromise the quality of the end result.

Art Dye park is seen as the jewel of our park system. It will provide for the active and passive recreational needs of our community for years to come. It is a magnificent setting for Steel Days. Taking time to complete the paving properly will help Art Dye live up to its promise.

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