Organizers prepare to build park in March
Chrystal Doucette/Columbia Basin HeraldConstruction Consultant Michael Thomas helps measure the boundaries for playground equipment Monday at the Gen. James H. Doolittle Park site in Moses Lake as Grant County Commissioner Richard Stevens (left) watches.
12,000 square-foot facility to be built in five days
MOSES LAKE - A group interested in Gen. James H. Doolittle Park met Monday to review the site in preparation for the park's construction.
The anticipated construction dates are March 26 to March 30.
Construction Consultant Michael Thomas traveled from Pennsylvania to Moses Lake Monday to work out details of the park's construction. The meeting, held at the park's location of Patton Boulevard and Doolittle Drive in north Moses Lake, was attended by Grant County commissioners, representatives of the county Public Works Department and Housing Authority, and other interested parties.
"You guys are going to have to get the site up and get everything ready to go," Thomas said.
Access is needed to electricity during construction, he said. Receptacles are going to be set up to provide 200 amps of power throughout the site, he said.
Thomas discussed access to water, the placement of temporary bathrooms for volunteers and the placement of tents for volunteers to eat under.
He said organizers need to stack lumber in anticipation of 100 to 125 volunteers building the park at once.
Playground equipment encompasses approximately 12,000 square feet of the site, said organizer Tara Childs.
Commissioner Richard Stevens said organizers invited commissioners to the meeting.
"They've put a lot of work into this so far," said Commissioner Cindy Carter.
Stevens said the Larson area does not have a park with equipment. He hopes the park will be a safe place for the children to play.
Commissioner LeRoy Allison added there are two schools in the vicinity of the park.
The commission agreed to build a pathway at the park and is using paths and trails funding to do so, Stevens said.
The official opening of the park is the evening of March 30, the same day the park is complete.
"From my point of view, if we don't have an opening, then it's a failure," Stevens said.
Alsted Real Estate co-owner Mark Fanning said he came as a representative of the company, which chose the park as the company's civic project for the year. The company brought Big Bend Community College's mascot Thor, and donuts to students at Moses Lake's elementary schools in December for their fund-raising efforts. He anticipated support for the project would continue.