Work on the upcoming Camp Verde Sports Complex has been ongoing for years, with the funding having been approved all the way back in 2017. Last year, the first phase, clearing and grading dirt for the construction, was completed. Plans from then hoped that an early version of the park would be open by now.
But construction stalled this spring as the town found that when they opened the next phase up to bids with local contractors, all bids the town received were higher than the $4.1 million that the town has allocated to pay for this portion of construction.
At a meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 8, the Camp Verde Town Council unanimously voted to reject all bids for Phase 1B, allowing the town to open up the constructions to another round of bidding this fall.
According to Camp Verde Public Works Director Ron Long, a major part of the problem in the first round seemed to be timing, with construction in the summer running at higher costs compared to what the town wanted.
“The contractors were busy when this bid went out,” Long said. “They said, ‘the No. 1 thing I can do to reduce the cost of this project would be to do it in the winter.’ So that’s what we want to do.
“Our recommendation is to reject the three bids that we got — they’re all over the amount of funding that we currently have — and repackage the bid, put it back out in October or November out to bid, and start in January of next year.
“According to what I’m getting on the street, we should see a lot better pricing on the fields and amenities that we’re trying to get done.”
The bid that the town will be sending out will be for a partial version of the park, featuring three fields — one for football or soccer, featuring goal posts and a score board, and two baseball fields, with all the relevant accoutrements.
Long said that he hopes that prices are low enough that the town will be able to seek an additional field as well.
In addition to building the sports fields that Camp Verde residents will be able to use, the first round of the project includes implementing power and irrigation infrastructure that will allow future phases to proceed.
