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COLUMBIANA – Despite some pushback from one member of City Council this week, the Restoration and Beautification (R&B) Committee was given the go-ahead to pursue funding for a project to improve safety at Firestone Park.
Construction on the project cannot begin until total funding is made available, however.
The committee and HRG Inc., the engineering firm designing the project, presented a concept to council outlining the first phase of the safety improvements estimated to cost just under $220,000.
Councilman Ted Souder was not pleased with the concept, and argued that he believed the work is not “restoring” the park as the committee originally claimed.
According to the project design, the safety improvements will include the removal and reconstruction of the brick gutters within the park, with the new gutters a more shallow depth than the existing ones. The work would consist of the installation of a five-foot-wide gutter plate that would utilize the existing bricks that would first be removed, cleaned and stored until they are ready for installation, Tim Schram of HRG explained.
It would also consist of the addition of a sidewalk along the south side of the pool parking lot hill that would extend to the Springfield Road entrance.
Souder said he is not in favor of changing the gutters and doesn’t agree with the project.
“I was all for it when I thought I knew what restoration meant. I guess I don’t. I looked it up and this, to me, is not a restoration project, you are just changing the park when you restore something you put it back to the original condition,” Souder said.
Councilman Skip Liston said that if the gutters are not changed the city could be faced with lawsuits.
“It someone trips and falls there… they are in disarray,” he said of the gutters. “To me it’s negligence.”
Several city officials have commented on the safety of the existing gutters over the last year, with the general consensus that they are not safe.
That opinion was also expressed by the city’s park board during its last regular meeting, and reiterated to council by board president Ron Detwiler on Tuesday.