(June 22, 2017) Dr. William Henry Park in Berlin is getting new bathrooms – soon – and plans are underway on several other notable parks projects, according to Administrative Services Director Mary Bohlen.
Bohlen is the staff liaison to the Berlin Parks Commission and manages parks improvements for the town.
The Town Council agreed in February to pay $119,885 to Green Flush Technologies for a prefabricated outdoor restroom at Henry Park. Bohlen said the majority of funding for the project, about $96,000, would come from a Community Parks and Playgrounds grant overseen by the Department of Natural Resources, Program Open Space.
The total cost of the bathrooms, including hookups to town water, sewer and electric, was estimated at $135,035.
Councilman Dean Burrell has been a proponent of installing permanent bathrooms at both parks since he took his preschool age granddaughter to Stephen Decatur Park and she had to use one of the portable toilets there, he said in February.
“It ruined her day, trying to use the Port-a-Potty,” Burrell said at the time.
An error in the first round of bids delayed the project for several months, which could have affected the town receiving additional grant funding for a similar facility at Stephen Decatur Park. The town applied for about $120,000 in Community Parks and Playgrounds funding, but did not receive it.
According to Bohlen, state officials said the grant was denied because Berlin has two open grants, one for the Henry Park bathrooms and another for tennis court upgrades at Stephen Decatur Park.
“They want us to get those done first, which is reasonable,” she said. Bohlen said the town would reapply for that money in August. The grants are not awarded until April of the following year.
When the council approved the fiscal year 2018 budget on June 12, Burrell said he was disappointed the town did not budget for the permanent bathrooms, with or without grant funding.
“We have kids using Port-a-Potties [at Stephen Decatur Park] and that’s a shame here in the Town of Berlin,” he said.
If the grant is not approved next year, Bohlen said the council could simply allocate the funds for the project in the fiscal 2019 budget.
“Henry Park should be well done by then, and with the tennis courts we’ll know where we stand,” she said. “Certainly, if we don’t think we’re on the radar for a grant when we’re reviewing the budget at this time next year – in March or April when we start thinking about it – then we’ll clarify with the council if they want to go ahead and pay for that outright.”
“Fiscally it’s disappointing, but if we can get a grant that’s going to pay 90 percent of it, waiting a couple years makes sense,” she added.
Bohlen said the Henry Park bathroom project was submitted to the state for permits, which she expected to go through any day now. When it does, a delivery date can be set up with the vendor.
She said the building comes prefabricated and Town of Berlin utility hookups would be in place before the delivery.
“Basically, it would just be a matter of setting them and hooking them up. It really should only take a few days,” she said.
Meanwhile, town engineers are working to bring down the price for the tennis court upgrades. Bohlen said a discrepancy was found in the amount of asphalt underneath the courts – in some places there were 10 inches, in others, just three.
“Whenever they built it, they put the asphalt in in such a way as to make it a level surface. What they were planning to do was go down three inches, take it all out and then re-asphalt and resurface it. To cut costs a little bit, they reduced that to an inch and a half,” she said.
She said items like benches and new nets would be marked as optional when bids are released. If the town can purchase those items elsewhere for less, they would be excluded from the final contract.
Bohlen said the town could also apply for grant funding this year to install lights around the basketball courts at Henry Park.
The Berlin Parks Commission recently discussed an overhaul of town code related to the parks and a first reading was expected during a mayor and council meeting, last Monday. That was postponed because the agenda was already substantial, Bohlen said. She expects the changes to receive a first reading during the next Town Council meeting, June 26.
If that happens, a public hearing and a formal vote would be held on June 10. Bohlen said the overhaul was designed to give the council more flexibility in approving events held at Berlin Falls.
“Part of the reason we started looking at it was the issue of, with a new facility that at this time is being treated as a park, we needed to make sure that the current code applied,” she said. “One of the issues really is alcohol. It’s far more likely we would have events at Berlin Falls where alcohol is a factor.”
Current code prohibits consumption of alcohol at all parks.
“What we’re doing is relaxing that a little bit and giving the mayor and council the option of allowing it, if they so choose,” she said. “As far as the rest of it goes, it was just a matter of, as long as we’re making this change, let’s review the whole thing and see if there’s anything else.”
Bohlen is the staff liaison to the Berlin Parks Commission and manages parks improvements for the town.
The Town Council agreed in February to pay $119,885 to Green Flush Technologies for a prefabricated outdoor restroom at Henry Park. Bohlen said the majority of funding for the project, about $96,000, would come from a Community Parks and Playgrounds grant overseen by the Department of Natural Resources, Program Open Space.
The total cost of the bathrooms, including hookups to town water, sewer and electric, was estimated at $135,035.
Councilman Dean Burrell has been a proponent of installing permanent bathrooms at both parks since he took his preschool age granddaughter to Stephen Decatur Park and she had to use one of the portable toilets there, he said in February.
“It ruined her day, trying to use the Port-a-Potty,” Burrell said at the time.
An error in the first round of bids delayed the project for several months, which could have affected the town receiving additional grant funding for a similar facility at Stephen Decatur Park. The town applied for about $120,000 in Community Parks and Playgrounds funding, but did not receive it.
According to Bohlen, state officials said the grant was denied because Berlin has two open grants, one for the Henry Park bathrooms and another for tennis court upgrades at Stephen Decatur Park.
“They want us to get those done first, which is reasonable,” she said. Bohlen said the town would reapply for that money in August. The grants are not awarded until April of the following year.
When the council approved the fiscal year 2018 budget on June 12, Burrell said he was disappointed the town did not budget for the permanent bathrooms, with or without grant funding.
“We have kids using Port-a-Potties [at Stephen Decatur Park] and that’s a shame here in the Town of Berlin,” he said.
If the grant is not approved next year, Bohlen said the council could simply allocate the funds for the project in the fiscal 2019 budget.
“Henry Park should be well done by then, and with the tennis courts we’ll know where we stand,” she said. “Certainly, if we don’t think we’re on the radar for a grant when we’re reviewing the budget at this time next year – in March or April when we start thinking about it – then we’ll clarify with the council if they want to go ahead and pay for that outright.”
“Fiscally it’s disappointing, but if we can get a grant that’s going to pay 90 percent of it, waiting a couple years makes sense,” she added.
Bohlen said the Henry Park bathroom project was submitted to the state for permits, which she expected to go through any day now. When it does, a delivery date can be set up with the vendor.
She said the building comes prefabricated and Town of Berlin utility hookups would be in place before the delivery.
“Basically, it would just be a matter of setting them and hooking them up. It really should only take a few days,” she said.
Meanwhile, town engineers are working to bring down the price for the tennis court upgrades. Bohlen said a discrepancy was found in the amount of asphalt underneath the courts – in some places there were 10 inches, in others, just three.
“Whenever they built it, they put the asphalt in in such a way as to make it a level surface. What they were planning to do was go down three inches, take it all out and then re-asphalt and resurface it. To cut costs a little bit, they reduced that to an inch and a half,” she said.
She said items like benches and new nets would be marked as optional when bids are released. If the town can purchase those items elsewhere for less, they would be excluded from the final contract.
Bohlen said the town could also apply for grant funding this year to install lights around the basketball courts at Henry Park.
The Berlin Parks Commission recently discussed an overhaul of town code related to the parks and a first reading was expected during a mayor and council meeting, last Monday. That was postponed because the agenda was already substantial, Bohlen said. She expects the changes to receive a first reading during the next Town Council meeting, June 26.
If that happens, a public hearing and a formal vote would be held on June 10. Bohlen said the overhaul was designed to give the council more flexibility in approving events held at Berlin Falls.
“Part of the reason we started looking at it was the issue of, with a new facility that at this time is being treated as a park, we needed to make sure that the current code applied,” she said. “One of the issues really is alcohol. It’s far more likely we would have events at Berlin Falls where alcohol is a factor.”
Current code prohibits consumption of alcohol at all parks.
“What we’re doing is relaxing that a little bit and giving the mayor and council the option of allowing it, if they so choose,” she said. “As far as the rest of it goes, it was just a matter of, as long as we’re making this change, let’s review the whole thing and see if there’s anything else.”