Pictured is a computer rendering of the playground to be constructed at Kimball Park inside the sports complex. Below is a conceptual layout of the equipment.KIMBALL, Tenn. — City leaders have been working for more than six months to add a sizable playground to Kimball Park’s Chester Blevins Sports Complex, and now that project is about to get underway.
In August 2014, the Kimball Board of Mayor and Aldermen along with the city’s park board sent out requests for proposals by certified designers. They got no response.
Eventually, city officials contacted PlayCore Holdings Inc. in Chattanooga and some other designers directly to visit the park and offer options for both boards to consider.
Kimball Park’s Chester Blevins Sports Complex play ground plansBids were opened Jan. 20, and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted unanimously this month to accept PlayCore’s low bid of $35,995.
The work will be paid for through a Local Parks and Recreation Fund grant that Kimball has been using to make improvements to the park over the last several years.
The board’s vote authorized Mayor Rex Pesnell to sign the contract to initiate the project as soon as possible.
Alderman John Matthews said the price for the new playground included a “100 percent matching grant.”
“So we’re actually getting close to $70,000 in playground equipment,” he said.
The board also voted unanimously to extend Kimball’s agreement with nearby South Pittsburg, Tenn., for a second year so that town’s youth baseball and softball programs can use the sports complex.
At last month’s city meeting, South Pittsburg Commissioner Paul Don King said he didn’t like the idea of paying Kimball to “run our parks” and that the deal should end after this year.
Officials from both towns made it clear that South Pittsburg doesn’t pay Kimball any money for the park’s use, and that the agreement worked out well for both sides last year.
Kimball Alderman Mark Payne said the deal is an effort to “help all the kids.”
South Pittsburg Mayor Jane Dawkins agreed and said the joint effort between the towns is “working out nicely.”
The children, parents and league are the ones affected by the agreement, she said, and “they’re happy with it.”
“There’s a lot of interest in the park right now,” Pesnell said. “I’m glad to see it being used.”
Ryan Lewis is based in MarionCounty. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.