Bid approved for new shading at splash pad
IMPERIAL — Construction is set to begin for a new shade structure over the water splash pad at Eager Park on West Tenth Street.
The Imperial City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved awarding the project to USA Shade Inc. for a bid of $121,485.24.
In early 2019, the city of Imperial removed the shade structure previously installed over the splash pad due to corrosion and damage that the poles had sustained over time.
On April 21, city staff began soliciting bids for the project. USA Shade submitted the sole bid.
The new structure will consist of a 50- foot- by50-foot multi-panel, super span, hip fabric roof and a steel frame structure with an 11-foot entry height and 36-inch high concrete bollards around the base of each column.
The structural columns will be a minimum of 12 inches by 12 inches by 0.375-inches, and will be hot-dip galvanized.
All the above ground hardware, including bolts, clamps and cables, will be stainless steel, a city staff report said.
While the previous shade structure was four pieces of fabric that were spaced out over the splash pad, this new structure will be one large piece that completely covers it.
The completion date for the project, however, remains a bit up in the air, per Imperial Park Superintendent Tony Lopez.
“We’ll go through the process, like we do with all the projects after they’re awarded,” Lopez told the council on Wednesday. “Our clerk will send out the notice that they have been awarded, and then we’ll start the clock then. Depending on how quickly they build the actual frame and get that back to us, that’ll give us a better timeline once we get a date on that.
“But, right now, with people being still short-staffed on the metal and on the fab
ricating and all that stuff, it’s kind of hard to say what the exact deadline would be, or the exact date of completion,” he continued. “But they have 45 days. Once they have started work, they have 45 days to complete. I don’t anticipate it even going 30.”
The new structure has a 10-year warranty on it.
The project will be paid for using Prop 68 per capita grant funding and a cash match through March and
Ash recreation funds, Assistant City Manager Alexis L. Brown said.
“So that is how we’re leveraging the resources that we have in order to get this thing moving forward,” she said. “Because, otherwise, being a general fund park, we don’t have the same resources as we do with other parks funded with CFDs and that sort of funding sources.”
Lopez noted that the final $121,485.24 price tag is not a blanket quote, but, instead, is the sum of the individual prices for everything in the project, including the nuts and bolts, fabric and steel frame.
City Mayor Pro- Tem Geoff Dale said he felt this was a wise investment by the city. “If the poles and the structure holds up in 10 years, you can always change the covering, and you just keep on going,” he said. “So we’re not paying that kind of money over and over again after every 10 years.”
“If we replace anything, it’ll be the fabric top,” Lopez replied to Dale. “These fabric tops are made to withstand wind load of about 150 miles an hour. So, with our temperature down here and our high winds, in 10 years, we’re replacing the top — not the frame.”
“The frame is all good, and you’ve got it set up to where, this time, it’s not going to rust out and other things,” Dale added. “This is a lot better. That $125,000 is worth it.”
City Mayor Karin Eugenio expressed concern the final price tag seemed “like a lot of money for a shade.”
“But when you explain the process, it’s obviously a lot involved,” she said.
Although excited about the project, Councilwoman Katie Burnworth also commented that the price tag is expensive.
“But, at the same time, you get what you pay for,” she said. “So, if you divide it by 10 years, then that’s what you get, and it looks a lot smaller.”
With the splash pad being turned off for some time now, Lopez said the city wants to wait until construction starts to turn it back on.
“Because if we start construction, we’re going to have to open and close,” he said. “We want to, kind of, have — when we have the shade completed — kind of like a soft reopening. Bring everybody back and kind of have something to mark the day at Eager Park once it’s completed.”
“I’m excited for that,” Eugenio said. “I’m just envisioning how excited I know I’ll be for that day.”