Plans to mark a milestone
Somerton works to finish Centennial Park in time for city’s 100th anniversary celebration
SOMERTON – Somerton plans to open Centennial Park by June 4, the date of 100th anniversary of the city’s founding — a milestone the new park will commemorate.
The city council recently approved the final design for the park to be located at the foot of the elevated water tower on the city’s north side. The next step comes in August when the city seeks bids from contractors to do the work to turn what is now a city public works parking lot into a palm-shaded park featuring a performing arts amphitheater, historical exhibits and water fountains.
City Economic Development Director Hector Tapia said the council’s approval of the design, done by Norris Design of Denver, concluded a nearly yearlong phase in the development of the park at the corner of Somerton Avenue and George Street.
The city has budgeted a little more than $366,000 for the park’s development, a project to be financed with revenue from a 0.8 percent sales tax adopted by the council in 2011.
Tapia said the park will be landscaped with lowmaintenance plants, which will line a walking corridor that ends near the base of the tower, at the amphitheater used by the area’s performing arts and arts groups for presentations.
Also planned at the base will be an area for permanent exhibits of Somerton’s history, with water fountains located nearby for children’s and families’ enjoyment.
“The park will serve to document the history of the city, but it will also have a recreational component with the water fountains,” Tapia said. “We are confident that it’s going to help to beautify the area.”
As the city opens bidding in August, Tapia said, it will also launch a fund-raising campaign seeking donations from businesses and individuals to pay for 12 palm trees that will shade the park or for benches, tables and trash cans for the park. The donations would allow the city to save part of its budget to pay for a restroom area.
“We think there would be a lot of business that would like to see their names (attached to) the park, and we expect they will want to participate given that the parking is going to record the 100 years of the city’s history.”
Tapia said documents the city has show that the date of Somerton’s founding was June 4, 1918. He said the city wants to have the park completed in time to open it as part of the celebration of centennial.