City Park lots nearly completed, South Park lots up next

By LYNETTE SOWELL 
Cove Leader-Press 

New parking lots are nearly completed in Copperas Cove City Park, the first park in the city’s park system to receive several new, paved lots as part of a multimillion-dollar, multi-phase project that began on February 1 of this year.
For now, the contractor is finishing some punch list items at City Park’s new parking lots before city reps do a final walk-through of the new parking lots. 
“We’d rather allow the general contractor flexibility to work without traffic, etc. rather than navigating cars and people,” said the city’s Parks & Recreation Director, Joe Brown.
The contractor will also perform final grading and place topsoil at City Park before heading over to South Park to begin the next project, and a schedule for work at South Park will be established once City Park is completed, Brown added. 
As part of the parking lot upgrades at City Park, Brown said that electrical distribution boxes will be installed in the center of City Park’s main parking lot for various types of vendors, as the area will become a staging area for vendors at various events. 
“We will gatekeep the traffic in this area, maintaining the space and usage of electrical distribution boxes,” Brown said. 
After the parking lots in City Park are completed, work will begin on two new parking lots in South Park, one located between the pool and the soccer fields, and the other near the park’s playground off Dennis Street. 
Then, Brown said, after South Park’s lots are finished, attention will be paid to Ogletree Gap. The idea at first was to see if the Ogletree Gap parking lot and sidewalk work could be completed before the city’s Food Truck Festival, but that won’t happen on the current schedule.
Stone slabs delineating park space are being installed, with metal sign components to be fabricated and installed later in the project. Right now, there is a large stone in place at Ogletree Gap for the future monument sign, with lettering and logo to be installed later. The next monument sign to be installed will be at City Park near the entrance by the new main parking lot.
This is the first phase of the project, to include parking lots and monument signs for the parks.
The work on the parks is expected to continue through at least 2021, with restrooms, pavilions, playground, fitness station, multi-purpose fields, and a splash pad as part of the work in upcoming project phases.