The town of Camp Verde finally received approval for a $2.5 million grant to construct a new Sports Complex that has been years in the making.
The Camp Verde Town Council approved the Land & Water Conservation Fund matching grant, along with several other related items, at its Sept. 15 meeting.
“Through persistence, we’re actually moving forward,” Town Manager Russ Martin said. “We’ve just kind of been holding our breath, and I apologize to the general public, but it’s been worth holding our breath; this is $2.5 million.”
The town initially approved $7 million in bonding to pay for the construction of the project near McCracken Lane in November 2016. At that time, they had hoped to complete the project by spring or summer of 2019. Since then, the town has faced a number of delays, including a lawsuit and issues with bids for construction. The council eventually approved a $3.7 million bid by Tierra Verde Builders to complete Phase 1 of the park in February 2020, which they had hoped to break ground on March 2021.
They weren’t able to begin construction, however, because the $2.5 million Land & Water Conservation Fund matching grant through Arizona State Parks, funded through the federal Great American Outdoors Act, was delayed at the federal level. Now, after years of hard work, the council was able to approve the acceptance of the grant amid rounds of applause.
“The state is looking at this process because it is just obnoxiously long,” Martin said. “Ultimately, we have an agreement now. We sign it, the money is allocated, and we can go ahead and get started on all the other things….We’re pretty fortunate in that relative sense that we’re here today to get it done. So, you’ll see some things moving forward. You’ll see contracts, bids go out, all those things going forward now.”
They also voted to approve the use of additional capital reserve funds to purchase equipment for maintenance of the Sports Complex turf, an agreement for archaeological monitoring services and architectural design services for the restroom and concession facility at the complex.
The council voted to approve an American Institute of Architects standard agreement with Joel Westervelt Architect for design services for the restroom and concession facility at the Sports Complex. Westervelt is the same architect who designed the Camp Verde Community Library and has already drawn up a concept for the 2,000-square-foot building with a shade structure as well.
The design of the restroom and concession building is estimated to be around $58,000 and is approved for no more than $60,000, Public Works Director Ron Long said.
The council also voted to approve approximately $75,000 out of the general fund budgeted reserve to be added to the remaining $50,000 from the original park loan to pay for necessary turf maintenance equipment such as mowers, leaf blowers, gators and other miscellaneous handheld equipment. The entire purchase of the equipment was approved for up to a maximum of $125,000.
Finally, the council also approved a professional services agreement with LANeal Consulting, LLC for archaeological monitoring during excavation of the site as requested by the local American Indian tribes.
“During the Land and Water Conservation Fund grant approval process, part of that approval process is to ask the Native American tribes if they have any concerns or requests on this project that we had in front of them for the Sports Complex, and one of the comments that we got from two of the tribes was that there be archaeological monitoring because of its location close to the Verde River,” Long said. “We do know when we purchased the property from the Forest Service back in 2008, I think they had an archaeological survey done and they found no sites. So they’re aware of that, but they still want the monitoring.”
The cost of the monitoring is estimated to be anywhere from $60,000 to 80,000. However, the town does have the option to apply for reimbursement for the monitoring through the grant, which they intend to do.
Once everything lines up, the town will be able to begin construction on Phase 1B, which is estimated to take around 18 months to complete.
