Skate park bids rejected

A planned skateboard park for Enterprise had a set back when the Enterprise City Council rejected all the bids for the concrete slab for the project that had been received.

At the meeting March 7, the council approved the request by Glenn Morgan of Polyengineering, Inc., to reject the three bids.

Due to what Morgan called “significant irregularities in relation to the requirements of the bid per the specifications” of two of the three bids, only the bid submitted by the Alabama Road Contracting Services, LLC, in the amount of $97,500 was considered.

That bid was rejected because it exceeded the amount of funds allocated for a concrete slab, according to Morgan.

Since only one bid was received for the concrete slab and no bids were received for skate park obstacles, the council approved Morgan’s request to negotiate for both items through the receipt of informal bids.

A proposed skate park in the City of Progress took a step closer to reality when a $50,000 grant from the state to help build such a park was announced at a November 2015 news conference outside the M.N. “Jug” Brown Recreation Center, where the skate park will be built.

City officials announced at that time that the outdoor skate park, to be located at the site of the old batting cages at the recreation center, is expected to develop into a 12,200-square-foot facility with obstacles and rails, sidewalks and spectator seating. The city’s Parks and Recreation Department will operate it.

The city is expected to provide a 50 percent match of financial or in-kind services – or a mixture of both, and the E.L. Gibson Foundation is also expected to kick in $20,000, Jason Wright, communications director for the city, said at the time the grant was announced.

Enterprise was one of 10 in the state to receive a $50,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs to build, renovate or improve recreational facilities. A date for the opening of the new park is not set.

The next meeting of the Enterprise City Council is set for Tuesday, March 21. A work session begins at 5 p.m. in the mayor’s conference room. A voting session follows at 6 p.m. in the council chambers. Citizens are invited and encouraged to attend both meetings.