Odessa Parks & Recreation Director Steve Patton received some excellent news last week from those taking care of the Floyd Gwin Park project.
“They are way ahead of schedule and we are below budget. Those are two things that are music, good music to my ears I tell you. A lot of projects are not like that these days,” Patton said. “I think everyone involved, the landscape architect, Kelly Cook, and all these contractors are very conscientious about the funding and everything that is going on and keeping everybody in line on what’s up and staging everything.”
In August 2019, Odessa city council members voted to take on $93 million in debt for various capital improvement projects, including a $6 million renovation project at Floyd Gwin, the city’s second largest developed park at 45 acres. The project includes walking trails and renovations to the baseball complex and basketball, volleyball and tennis courts. In addition, the playground area will be expanded as will the pool area. Several pavilions will also be added along with a new irrigation system and concession building with restrooms.
As of Feb. 1, Patton said the tennis, volleyball and basketball courts are 90% complete, the lighting on the pedestrian path and the athletic fields are 75% complete and the baseball complex and parking lots are about 50% complete. He said the walking trail is 40% finished and the park’s entire irrigation system is at 35%. They’ve not yet started on the pavilions or playground, but the design for the playground should arrive this week, he said.
“There’s all kinds of activity going on at the baseball complex, we’re trying to get that up as quick as we can so that baseball can move back to Floyd Gwin from McKinney Park. The parking lots are all under construction. You’ll see a lot of asphalt being laid and the grate being adjusted and a lot of equipment there,” Patton said. “There’s a new fence going around the swimming pool that’s currently being installed. And part of this contract also was to add the fourth build at the baseball complex at Sherwood. And that’s under construction right now too, the Little League baseball field.”
Right now, the project is expected to be finished by July 31, but bad weather, supply chain issues and delivery issues could change that, Patton cautioned.
“What I’ve been told for the manufacturer is that one of the biggest problems is their manufacturing plant has been hit with COVID,” Patton said. “They’re short on labor, then steel is what playground equipment is made out of and that’s hard to come by. There’s a backlog of steel and it’s really expensive, they’ve gone up in price, and all the resins that go into making the plastic pieces are in short supply, limited supply, and getting delivery on all that. So it’s depending on what pieces are there. They will assign a tentative date once you pick it and pay down on it.”
A lot of people are excited to see the finished project, Patton, who has been in with the city 32 years, said.
“It’s a great project that’s gonna make a huge difference in that park,” Patton said. “There’s not been any major renovations in that park in many, many, many years. None since I’ve been here.”
In related news, Patton said he is working to get members of the parks department’s advisory board together to discuss a master plan draft. The last plan was created in 2015 and the draft now sitting on his desk is ready to be discussed.
“We spent months if not years, on the public input process. Eight hundred surveys were received and we had five community meetings throughout the community,” Patton said. “We had two different sets of consultants come in here to help us gather all that information.”
Once the consultants had the public’s input, they researched other parks and recreation programs similar to Odessa’s and made a list of priorities and recommendations using national standards, too, Patton said.
Odessa’s newest park was built in 1994 and there are no parks on the north and east sides of Odessa, Patton said. He noted that Midland’s parks have three times the acreage of Odessa’s.
“Right now we’re trying to get everybody together in one room at the same time. We’re working on that,” he said.
