Plan for park moves forward

The city of Fort Scott is moving forward with plans to design a community downtown park near the newly-constructed Lowell Milken Center building.

City Manager Dave Martin talked to the Fort Scott City Commission Tuesday about assisting the Lowell Milken Center with construction of a community park that would be located on a grassy space just south of the site where construction on the new LMC facility is nearing completion at 1 S. Main St.

Martin said a committee headed by local resident Beth Nuss and LMC Program Director Megan Felt is organizing fundraising efforts for the park and has had some discussions about its design.

"There has been some dialogue about what they want," Martin said. "A committee has been assigned to that. The committee has met with some ideas. There have been some drawings but nothing is set in stone. They (committee) will also be in charge of fundraising for it."

Earlier this month, commissioners approved a certificate of appropriateness for creation of the park following approval of the certificate by the Design Review Board in September.

On Tuesday, Martin asked commissioners for approval for him to send out requests for proposals on the project and talk with engineering firms or architects that would be interested in working with the committee to build the park.

Commissioners approved publishing a notice for a request for proposals from engineers or architects to work on the park, which Martin said has been called a "pocket park."

Martin said the park would be owned by the city and at some point, the city will put some money into it.

"The city owns the land and it will be a city park," Martin said. "We will look for someone to design it. There is some special engineering to go into it. The city will attribute some money but a majority will be raising funds. There's not anything (money) in it right now."

According to the minutes of the Sept. 18 meeting of the Design Review Board, the committee envisions the park to have an open concept to allow different types of events to take place. There is no budget for the park but the committee would like to start taking bids in order to build a budget.

Early plans by the committee include a retaining wall to be built on the east side of the park with dirt brought in to make the park level. A water wall will be centered and a watering system and water basin will be put in place. Tall shrubs will be planted on each side of the water wall to each edge of the east wall.

On the south side, the newly-bricked wall of the Kress building will make the barrier, the minutes said.