Upgrades to the Winamac Park Pavilion continue to move ahead. During last week’s park board meeting, Park Manager Dave DeLorenzo reported that Boardman Construction is about 80-percent done with repair work. “They basically moved it somewhat and then re-screwed the sheeting on it, the boards, all the way around the building,” he explained. “So that was really above and beyond what we had scoped for the project. They have some more painting to do. There are some boards on there that don’t have square ends on the bottom, but Eric [Boardman] wanted to try to preserve as much of the original building as possible.”
Park Board President Courtney Poor noted that the work was funded entirely by donations to the Winamac Park Department. “This whole project has been taken out of the Gift Fund and has not cost the public a dime,” he said.
To make sure the structure doesn’t experience any more water damage from now on, board member Jon Chapman suggested changing the landscaping. “I see more and more buildings that now are just using the large-size landscaping stone, and personally, I’d just like to see that stone around the perimeter of the pavilion and no plants at all, because I think it’d be just easy for you to take a blower,” he said. “It looks nice. I think it’d be a nice border to set the building off.”
ProscapeS Unlimited came up with some plans for the work, but board member Brad Zellers suggested the town could save money by having its own employees do the installation. In the end, the park board voted to have town employees install the stone around the building, despite some concerns from Poor. “With all due respect to the employees of the town, ProscapeS are pros,” Poor said. “They just did work for me. They do it once. They do it right. And I don’t think that that’s an exorbitant fee.”
Board members also decided to pay for the materials with money left over in the New Equipment fund, to save the Park Gift Fund for future needs. Work is expected to be done before the end of the year.
