As Southeast Antioch citizens breathe a well-deserved sigh of relief, with the Mello Roos Bond entering its’ last full fiscal year of taxing, the Citizens Advisory Board met on July 13th. At the meeting they approved some minor Prewett Park consulting fees and heard a report from Project Manager Lonnie Karste on the plan for appropriating the last of the monies left in the till.
The Antioch City Council, which has ultimate authority, as the Citizen Committee is merely for oversight, considered over 200 ideas on what to do at the Park with a remaining two million dollars. Five community workshops and some twenty five meetings later they decided.
Security cameras at the water and skateboard parks and main parking lot headed the approved list of to-dos.
Additionally, monies were allocated to a spray park that would serve all ages but be especially appropriate for under served younger children in the 3 to 4 year old age group.. The features would spray recycled water both up and down and allow parents and grandparents opportunity to intermingle with the younger set..
Lastly, an all accessible playground outside the paying park would open with an emphasis on serving the disabled.
Other ideas that never made the final cut included an electronic marquee. an overpass from Deer Valley High, turf soccer fields and outdoor basketball courts. Two million doesn’t go as far as it did in the 1989 kickoff year. Of course, many in the community are hoping for future state construction grants to expand the foot print of the library, which was built with expansion in mind. The library has proved very popular as has the gymnasium, Kids Center and meeting/banquet facility.
Bids are now going out for the tail end of the current build out and should be finalized by late Fall with project completion by May or so of 2016.
It’s been a long and winding road but Antioch can be proud of the school facilities, water park and community center it built with the funds. The taxpayers our deserve thanks–and now deserve a break.
Walter Ruehlig
Member, Mello Roos Citizens Advisory Board
