The Andalusia City Council on Tuesday made two appointments to the library board and approved special event alcohol licenses.
The council:
• Reappointed Robert D. Williams to the library board, and named Jean Stone as a new member of the board.
• Approved special event alcohol licenses for Ducks Unlimited and for the National Wild Turkey Federation, both of whom plan fundraisers in coming weeks.
• Awarded a bid for a new HVAC system for the gym at Johnson Park to Walker Electric. The bid for the 7.5 ton unit was $10,263.
Andalusia city’s three cemeteries – Magnolia, Memorial and Marshall – are undergoing some big changes, said Dwight Mikel, director of the department of leisure services for the city.
“Perhaps the biggest is all the physical changes that are happening on site,” Mikel said. “The city is spending $400-,000 on Mem-orial and Marshall cemeteries to correct a lot of issues.”
Mikel said crews have been busy working to resurface drives, correcting erosion problems, installing irrigation and landscaping at the sites.
He said the cost of the project is being funded through the proceeds of lot sales, and to generate new funds, city officials raised lot prices from $600 to $750 in October.
Mikel said due to the age of Magnolia Cemetery, city crews work to maintain the site and no renovations are planned.
At Marshall Cemetery, crews have just completed a new wrought iron fence, and this weekend at Memorial Cemetery, participants of the Discipleship Now, a Baptist youth ministry, will be planning 200 crepe myrtles and magnolia trees as their community service project.
“Once these projects are completed, the changes will be remarkable,” Mikel said.
Future plans include the possibility of a columbarium, which is structure that houses cremated remains, he said.
“We’ve had lots of requests for this type of area,” he said. “It’s becoming more and more in demand. We’re looking at the flagpole area as maybe a site for that in the future.”
Mikel said the next six months will be filled with work at the areas.
On Opening Day 2012, Johnson Park will reopen as Legends Field.
That will be the new name of the complex once renovations are complete, said Dwight Mikel, director of the City of Andalusia’s department of leisure services, as he updated members of the Andalusia Rotary Club Tuesday with news of the Johnson Park project.
“And that’s April 2012,” Mikel said. “Things may look slow, but we’re on schedule. The easiest way I can tell for people to gauge our progress is this – if you don’t see grass growing in the growing season, you know we’re behind.
“A lot of you already know this, but there’s going to be eight fields,” he said. “Chick Earl Field will be the benchmark of the facility. The council didn’t want to name the other fields after individual people because there have been tons of people who have done a tremendous amount for youth sports. The plan is to create a ‘Legends Wall.’
“We’ll have 25-30 to start with, and then add four or five each year to recognize their contributions to youth sports,” he said. “There are a lot of deserving people whose name would never make it on a field.”
Plans are under way to assemble a list of candidates, and it is expected the council will appoint a committee to do the selections, he said.
Currently, crews are busy at Johnson Park on number things, such as installing the new state-of-the-art lighting and PA system, he said.
As for the physical look of the park, Mikel said all the fields will be irrigated, and the new concession stand will be identical to the one at the sports complex.
“Plus, with the new sound system, we’ll be able to make park-wide announcements, and we’ll be able to control the lighting system from anywhere with the use of a Blackberry,” he said.
“Parking has been a big concern,” he said. “No longer will children have to cross the lot to get to another field. We’ve negotiated a lease with the Palmer family for some land adjacent to Palmer and Sons. That spot will be used as parking.”
Mikel said the park will not include a regulation sized field; instead the city felt it was more beneficial to utilize the fields at the Andalusia High School and at LBW Community College – a move that saved $400,000 by not building a new field.
“It’s taken a long time for things to get to this point,” he said, speaking of the overall project. “It was actually a benefit, because we were able to evaluate things and do it right.”
Local teams are were practicing at the Andalusia Sports Complex on Wednesday. The complex is being used as a
temporary facility for youth sports this baseball, softball and t-ball season, while Johnson Park is being renovated.
| Kendra Bolling/Star-News
The soccer fields at the Andalusia Sports Complex are now in the process of being temporarily converted to ball fields because of the Johnson Park renovation project.
Work is now under way to construct temporary t-ball, softball and baseball fields at the site for the upcoming ball season, said Dwight Mikel, director of the City of Andalusia’s department of leisure services, said at Tuesday’s Rotary meeting.
“In order to have a place to play, we had to take the sports complex and modify it so that we can play all the youth ball teams out there,” Mikel said. “There will be six fields – three t-ball/pitch and three 9-12, baseball/softball. We don’t know exactly how we’re going configure those fields, because we’re waiting until the end of registration to see how many kids we’re going to have.”
Ball registration is currently ongoing and will end Feb. 18.
“Until then, we’re in a holding pattern,” he said.
However, work has not been idle at the site, he said.
“You may have noticed the soccer fields,” he said. “They’re gone. We’ve added perimeter fencing and back stops for the coming year’s ball season.
“As for how things are going to work, this year will be an anomaly,” he said, speaking of the playing schedule which will have both city ball leagues and county ball leagues playing at the one facility. “It’s going to be a huge challenge. We may have to start the season a little earlier, play a little later and maybe even have some game on Saturdays, but we’ll make it work.”
Mikel said a more definite plan for practice times and game schedules will be announced once the city league and the county league know exactly how many players are on their rosters.
“One good thing that will help us in the practice area is that teams in the county league can practice at their school,” he said. “We will make things so that each team has practice time on the fields at the sports complex.”
A city worker clears the site next to the Springdale Estate where city officials hope to create Central Park. Stephanie Nelson/Star-News
The City of Andalusia is working with a Birmingham firm to design a long-term plan for what might become Central Park.
Mayor Earl Johnson reviewed what he called a “broad plan” with council members last week.
The 14.5 acre park will include city hall, the veterans memorial, Springdale and the recently-acquire property between city hall and Springdale.
Dale Fritz and Associates of Birmingham is working with the city on the design. Johnson said that Fritz previously worked with the city on the Gateway and the veterans park.
The recently-acquired office building will be torn down, he said, adding that its current footprint will become a parking area. That parking area will be connected to the parking in the rear of city hall, with a few spaces added closer to city hall. As well, a driveway from the rear of Springdale will connect to existing parking.
“This is designed so that if an event were taking place at Springdale, you could drop people off on the property and then exit to the parking behind city hall instead of trying to get in and out on East Three Notch,” Johnson said.
Similarly, the current walking trail at the veterans park will connect to new walking trails on the Springdale property.
A pavilion is proposed for the Springdale property, and the current garage will be altered to facilitate crowds. The garage portion will become a prep kitchen to be used by caterers; an office will be added; and restroom facilities will be added. The plumbing is already in place, he said.
Johnson said that the slight slope of the front yard lends itself to seating for outdoor performances. Preliminary plans call for a portable stage to be used for such events.
The architects have proposed playing on the lush Japanese plants already in place to give parts of the property the feel of a botanical garden.
“The potential is unlimited,” Johnson said. “Dale works all over the Southeast, and says there is not another park facility like this in a town our size.”
The mayor said the preliminary plan was painted with “broad strokes” and that cost estimates and potential sources of revenue must be identified.
“We won’t do all of this at once,” Johnson said.
He said he expects it will be calendar year 2012 before the facility is available for rent for private events.
“We’ve got to get the restrooms and other facilities in place,” he said. “We don’t want people to use it and it not meet their expectations, because that will hurt us in the long run.”
He said more detailed plans will be presented to the council before work moves forward.