Even though there’s already been considerable work at Craig’s most visited public park over the last couple of years, Woodbury Park is in store for more improvements following a handful of related decisions from City Council this week.

On Tuesday, April 11, City Council unanimously voted to award a contract for the Woodbury Park Improvements Project to Duran and Pearce for $423,097, and passed a resolution appropriating an additional $36,250 to the overall park improvement and expansion project.

According to Craig Parks & Recreation Director Ryan Dennison, the city has been working since at least 2021 to update Woodbury Park and has put in a new restrooms and pavilion area, as well as updating the playground equipment, replacing some backstops and renovating the old bathrooms into a maintenance shop.

---

---

The series of smaller projects tie into the larger plan for Woodbury Park and run in line with the 2019 Craig Parks, Recreation, Open Space and Trails Master Plan.

In 2022, city officials continued to raise the bar at Woodbury Park with the city pursuing more design and engineering work in hopes of creating a more desirable park experience, most notably around the core area of the new restrooms and pavilion.

---

---

This summer, the city is set to continue the work at Woodbury Park with plans to complete most of the core infrastructure items, including remaking the area around the new pavilion and the restroom with new concrete pathways and landscaping. Other plans call for replacing the remaining backstops and installing parking lot lighting. Dugouts are currently being designed and will be a planned improvement for next year’s budget, according to Dennison.

Overall, two bids were received for the Woodbury Park Improvements Project — one from Duran & Pearce Contractors and another from Integrated Site Services Inc. In a memo to City Council, Dennison recommended awarding the project to Duran & Pearce Contractors, which submitted the lower priced bid.

In the memo, Dennison explained why the city needs to redo the area around the bathrooms and pavilion, saying that the asphalt millings currently serving as the surface material often migrate throughout the park and cause significant maintenance issues.

The asphalt millings can also make it hard for people with mobility issues to navigate the park, and it just isn’t very aesthetically pleasing, Dennison said.

As Dennison explained before City Council, $615,000 was originally budgeted for the Woodbury Park improvements and expansion project, with the Conservation Trust Fund and Lieu of Land restricted accounting for $459,305 of that amount.

Beyond the planned construction work, the city has also acquired six acres of vacant land adjacent to Jake’s Field for a park expansion, and Dennison added that $166,006 from Conservation Trust Fund was spent earlier this year to acquire the six acres.

Overall, the project cost has now been updated to $651,250, and the resolution that City Council passed on Tuesday appropriating $36,250 more to the project was to cover the remaining balance needed to complete the project.

“Fully completing the Woodbury Park Improvements Project in 2023 will provide the community of Craig a premiere park that better fits their recreational needs and more readily benefits visitor attraction,” Dennis told City Council. “Lastly, we anticipate that delaying project implementation will negatively impact overall project costs, so we would like to take advantage of current pricing and scheduling.”

As a result, City Council had little problem backing the project, and also awarded another bid for the design and construction of the remaining baseball backstops from Ivory Tip Fencing for $57,137.

Additionally, there will likely be more park improvements in store for Woodbury because City Manager Peter Brixius said that after the latest round of approved work is complete, city officials will look to keep the improvements going, including considering more bimodal pathways around the park, and there are some thoughts about adding pickelball courts or possibly even a skate park at that location.

“The plans will take us another few years to complete,” Brixius said.