Copperas Cove Quality of Life Board hears update on park restrooms project

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press 

New restrooms are coming to City Park by summer 2022, a little more than four years after the project was put into a parks improvement plan back in 2018. 
On Thursday, Copperas Cove Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Stoddard provided a brief update on the status of the City Park restrooms project during the Quality of Life Advisory Board meeting.
Last week, the permit was signed and submitted to the building department, and G. Hyatt Construction, Inc. should be breaking ground on the park bathrooms shortly, according to Stoddard. He estimated the construction would be finished by summer 2022. 
Stoddard presented the Quality of Life board members with copies of the final artistic rendering of what the block house, with the ADA compliant bathrooms, will look like. 
One issue was brought up regarding the sewer line at Field 6, which has an 80 percent chance of not being viable for tie ins for the restroom projects. The city is looking into getting a camera to get down and take a closer look at what is viable and isn’t, but if it is not considered viable, it will require a 460-foot line to tie into the sewer line. 
Another issue facing the restrooms is vandalism. Stoddard mentioned that adding in security cameras would raise the cost of the project by around $4,000 and asked for input from the board members. 
The board members were overall in agreement with having this added after hearing that the cameras would be mounted in an area to cover not only the restrooms but also viewing people come from the playscapes, ball fields, etc. 
Back in May 2021, the Copperas Cove City Council approved G. Hyatt Construction, Inc. to be the design/build firm for the City Parks restroom project with an approved contract worth $897,200. 
The project includes five buildings: one building containing a concession room, storage room, and two restrooms, and four buildings containing two restrooms each, including the design and preparing site, architectural, structural, mechanical, plumbing, and electrical design plans.
The four buildings containing two restrooms each are to be located at Field 1, Field 4, Field 6 and Field 8. 
Throughout the design process, issues with ADA compliancy arose, prompting the design/build firm and the committee to come up with a solution by changing the location of where the ADA compliant restrooms would be located within the block house building (which contains storage and concessions).  
These changes did cause an increase in the total cost for all the strucuters, bringing it over budget to $1,196,505. 
Regarding other projects in the works, the city has also received three submissions for the Request for Qualifications for the Cemetery Master Planning project, which are now being scored by members of the Cemetery Advisory Board. There have also been three submissions for the Ball Field Renovation Request for Qualifications, which will be scored by members of the Quality of Life board. Stoddard said after these are scored, he would bring the two recommendations to the city council to begin negotiations. 
The parks improvements renovations began four years ago, back in 2018, with the city holding town hall meetings in late January to share information about the $3.5 million worth of improvements planned for the city’s parks through the year 2021, with an additional $1.2 million worth of improvements planned for the Hills of Cove Golf Course.