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Park bandshell ready to roll as fate awaited for community center
Good things come to those who wait, the old adage suggests.
From the looks of things, the new bandshell in Greencastle’s Robe-Ann Park is quite a good thing, city officials were told at the December City Council meeting.
And the wait is over.
“The stain looks phenomenal,” Park Director Rod Weinschenk told the Council. “It all came together. I just want to thank everybody for being patient with us and with our donators and the Friends of the Park and everybody who’s been involved. Thank you all for being patient. As it turned out, it’s really, really nice.”
The Greencastle Civic League had hoped to celebrate its 25th year of Park Fest concerts on the stage of the new bandshell this past summer, but delays in materials and weather issues ruined that idea.
“It looks sharp,” Weinschenk assessed of the new facility and its location shift a bit to the northwest. “So we’re hoping that it’ll be a great addition to Robe-Ann Park, and we can’t wait to use it next spring and in the summer months for Park Fest, July 4th and all the little picnics we can put in there as well.”
Councilman Steve Fields asked if a final dollar figure was available yet on the bandshell project.
Last April, before the materials and weather delays took hold, the project was estimated at $125,000 plus site costs.
Weinschenk said yes, there is a number available and asked Mayor Bill Dory if he wanted to share it publicly.
“I’m not sure we’re quite ready,” Dory said, “because Jessica (Hartman, president of Friends of the Park) is doing the final number crunching. She gave me a preliminary spreadsheet the other day but she wasn’t sure it included a couple last-minute changeorders of modest dollar amount.”
Regardless, the mayor said he “can assure the community the value received, if we had to pay full price for it, we paid about 50 percent.”
“We did receive a lot of community support,” Dory said. “The Friends of the Park got us some grant dollars and we received some in-kind contributions, some discounts and all kinds of other things.
“So we’re double-checking our list to make sure we’re not overlooking anybody who helped with the project. We’ll be getting out some additional thank you letters once we get the final list done.”
The community effort also impressed Weinschenk.
“What I think is neat about these community build projects,” he said, “is just what Bill said, that we got it for about 50 percent of what it’s valued at. So that’s really neat.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Dory was again asked about the status of the proposed community center/YMCA project that local officials had once hoped might be up and running in spring 2019.
That, however, was before site acquisition negotiations slowed to a crawl, while at the same time turnover within the Wabash Valley YMCA group has kept officials from fully committing to a necessary role to operate the community center over the next 20 years.
“Slow but sure” is how Mayor Dory described continuing discussions and clarification of details related to the terms of an agreement between the city and the YMCA folks.
“You said of the YMCA (project), ‘slow but sure,’” Councilman Dave Murray pointed out. “I’ve got the ‘slow’ part of it down, when can we expect a decision out of them?”
“I’m hoping fairly shortly,” the mayor responded.
Murray pushed for something more definitive.
“I’m hoping by January,” Dory said.
Councilman Fields interjected that he is on a committee with one of the new Wabash Valley YMCA Board of Directors members and “basically he’s just learning of this whole negotiation at this point.”
That and having a new YMCA director come on board mid-negotiation hasn’t helped the community center project.
“I feel like we’ve had to start almost all over with them again,” City Council President Adam Cohen suggested.
“To some degree, yes,” Mayor Dory replied.
“Sure seems that way,” Murray agreed.
As far as the community center site goes, in previous discussions, it was pointed out that the city is hoping to option a piece of property while the contract is presently being scrutinized by attorneys for both sides.
The site will be announced once the option is agreed upon, the mayor has said.