Gilchrist Park will be Closed for a Year

[the searchers]

Originally Posted by Tlyna52

I was just at Gilchrist Park today, first time since it reopened. I don't think there will be any music in the park anymore and I doubt too many will have parties either. There are no restrooms, they didn't rebuild them. They have also just torn down the children's play area at the other end of the park past the ball courts. There are a couple of port a potties down that way but I expect they are only there because of the construction and will be removed after so no way for anyone to use a toilet. It took all these months to build three picnic shelters, a parking lot and a paved walk.

When we originally bid the project the cost of building the restrooms in a VE floodplain zone was excessive and threw the Gilchrist Park renovation project way over budget. The same situation happened when we bid out the restrooms at the children's play area. We removed the restrooms from both projects so we could proceed while we determined what the solution would be. Since we rebuilt the Gilchrist Park seawalls and beefed them up, our floodplain consultant recommended seeking reclassification of the areas to a AE zone designation that would reduce the construction costs. The consultant recommended seeking one restroom at a time in case there was an issue with one of the sites. We selected the children's play area first because the seawall was done. We recently learned that FEMA did reclassify the area where restrooms are by the children's play area to an AE zone. Council approved redesigning the restrooms to the new standard. Hopefully construction will begin in February after the comment period is over. Meanwhile we are now seeking a reclassification of the area where the Gilchrist Park area one restrooms will be to an AE zone. Once this is approved, we'll be able to proceed and place restrooms in this part of the park. Thank you for your patience.

Florida trivia for the inquiring mind
Last week's question: How many parks are there in our small City? There are 22 parks in Punta Gorda.

Nancy Prafke, Punta Gorda City Council Member - District 5

[JERSEY MAN]

Thanks again for the update Searchers. I was wondering the same thing, I liked seeing the musicians there on Thursday.

[the searchers]

Originally Posted by JERSEY MAN

Thanks again for the update Searchers. I was wondering the same thing, I liked seeing the musicians there on Thursday.

You're Welcome JERSEY MAN, Prafke sends out weekly messages to her constituents. You can get on the same list by contacting whoever has your area.

[MikeM8560]

The parking not great also and that circle to nothing ??

Not many places whre tou can park and look at the water without getting out of the car