Parks are among the beneficiaries of proposed projects using 2012 funding over the next several years. The three subcommittees reviewing Phase Four 2012 proposals made recommendations to the Rapid City city council in a special meeting June 30.
Among the projects that will occur in, or affect, Rapid City’s parks are repairs on Canyon Lake dam, creation of a new downtown park or “Main Street Square,” completion of bike trails in the Skyline Wilderness area, reconstruction of the swimming pool at Horace Mann park, and construction of a field house in the greenway at Roosevelt Park, between the current swim center and ice arena.
Not on the list is the completion of the greenway/stormwater improvements at Omaha and Eighth, a project that FRCP supported.
Now the council will prescribe a process to move forward with the recommendations. It appears that participation by council members on each of the three subcommittees through the entire vetting and public meetings has strengthened resolve to go with the recommendations, not freelance ideas not in the mix, as has occurred in the past.
The one thing that may come up over and above the recommendations (which came in exactly at the $33 million budget, with no bonding, only “pay as you go”) is that the council may discuss the pros and cons of doing bonding on some of the projects, possibly enabling selection of a few more projects that scored just below the ones selected.