Sign up for email newsletters

Sign up for email newsletters

Plans to pave the existing drives and parking lots at New Baltimore’s Festival Park are rolling ahead.

The New Baltimore City Council on Aug. 22 approved a recommendation from the Roads & Bridges/Public Utilities Committee to award the bid for the Festival Park paving project to James P Contracting Inc. in the amount of roughly $149,300. The motion was made by Mayor Pro-Tem David Duffy, supported by council member Ryan Covert and unanimously approved.

“The current plan is to pave the entire area, which would include parking lots, roads,” Mayor Tom Semaan said. “The roads will be widened by 1 foot on both sides, all the way through to the soccer fields and ball diamonds, in and out.”

Festival Park, which sits nestled in a residential area between Washington Street and County Line Road, was developed and donated to the city by Bay-Rama in 2012. There are two entrances to the park off St. Clair Drive, one at Edmunds Grove and another at Socia Street.

While the paving project addresses the issue of dust being kicked up by vehicles, causing a nuisance for homeowners surrounding the park, some residents still have concerns.

“With the rocks and everything they go fast enough,” said Carrie Russell, who lives near the park. “Without the rocks, I’m worried that the speed will increase, and there’s a lot of kids there. I just don’t want any tragedies.”

Semaan said speed limits below 15 mph cannot be enforced, per state statute. To help address the problem, he said the gates are locked from dusk to dawn, and increased police patrols have been implemented “on a routine basis.”

“When our PD is traveling down St. Clair Drive, they’re also entering that park — just the presence alone I think addresses some of the concerns,” the mayor said.

Existing speed bumps along the park drive have not helped much, residents said.

“They’ve sunken, so their effect is minimal, especially with trucks,” said Dan Dicristofaro, whose property abuts the park. “The new speed bumps you put down … there are a few areas where cars are just driving right around them.”

Semaan said officials will walk the site once the project is complete to determine the best way to create a slower and safer traffic flow. Possibilities include creating one-way traffic within the park.

“Let’s get to this next step and see how this milling process is going to go down, and I believe it’s going to make a huge impact,” the mayor said.

“You know that we can’t stop everything from occurring, but we’re going to do our best to make sure that every resident has a right to the benefit of living peacefully in their homes,” he added.

Dicristofaro thanked the mayor and council for their efforts.

“It has been like 10 years of going through this. And we’ve had incremental changes, but nothing like this,” he said.

Existing drives and parking areas consist of about 6 inches to 8 inches of crushed concrete and chip stone materials, according to the city’s request for proposal. The project generally includes widening existing drives where needed, grading to shape base material, adding aggregate base where needed, raising existing catch basins, extending a few parking areas, and adding an average of 4-inch asphalt millings to all drives and parking areas.

Project work listed in the RFP included:

• Excavate an area about 3 feet wide by 8 feet deep on both sides of the main drive from Edmunds Grove to Socia Street to make the road base 22 feet wide.

• All drives and parking areas are to receive an average of 4 inch asphalt millings as a topcoat.

• Parking spaces are to be laid out and striped with 4-inch-wide white acrylic waterborne traffic paint, including white one/two-way markings, and ADA symbols and blue ADA parking spaces.

• Restoration includes furnishing and placing 12-inch-wide wedge of topsoil along the edges of all drives and parking areas, along with topsoil seed and mulch blanket.

The RFP states the contractor must coordinate the work to accommodate planned activities at the park, including upcoming baseball and soccer games, as well as a 5K run and softball tournaments scheduled to take place this fall.

The 31-acre park offers sports fields and a mile-long walking/running trail. A playscape was purchased and installed by Bay-Rama in 2018. The organization is now raising funds to install a comfort station at the park.

“We care deeply about our city and that park,” Dicristofaro said. “We guard it jealously — without overdoing it; we understand — but we care a lot about it because we live right on it.”

“I’m looking forward to hearing you tell me how nice it is to sit on your patio,” Semaan replied.

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

Sign up for email newsletters