City holds on accepting bid for Firemen’s Park trails

The Graham City Council voted to further delay a project that has been in progress since 2018 to construct trails at Firemen’s Park by tabling a motion to accept a bid contract.

The city council met Thursday, July 31 and made a motion to reconsider the approval of a bid contract during their budget workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7.

The city received $1.3 million from the BRA for park improvement projects in June 2018. 

In 2020 and 2021, the city applied for a Recreational Trails and Local Park grant through Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to extend the scope of the existing money they received for park improvements in 2018 from the BRA. The city was awarded grants from TPWD in May 2021.

During the meeting Thursday, council members Jack Little and Jeff Dickinson raised concerns regarding the project. Dickinson raised concerns about the safety of the proposed trails around the Graham soccer fields. 

“We don't have the same environment over there on the soccer side as we do on the Firemen's Park side, as far as all the clearing down to the river, all the brushes gone. So, essentially, we're creating a path through a wooded area that doesn't take in any kind of buffer to the river,” Dickinson said. “From a safety standpoint and a youth standpoint, I just see it almost as a trail through the woods, and I'm somewhat concerned about the safety.”

Mayor Alex Heartfield said the city’s contracted engineering firm Jacob and Martin took safety into consideration when designing and redesigning the trail.

“That area has been walked extensively by Jacob and Martin. …The layout of that trail was established based on that and so the bids were based on the layout of the trail and the distance of that trail,” Heartfield said. “There were safety concerns taken in consideration on that. ...All of that area is a floodplain, and so the material being used that was requested in the bid was meant for if that water level goes up.”

While safety was Dickinson's concern, Little took issue with the ongoing maintenance costs associated with the trails.

“I'm not saying this wouldn't be nice to have, but who's going to maintain this? ...At the end of the day we're maintaining it which costs us, the citizens, taxpayers money,” Little said. “Rather than just spend this, can we retain some of that money for the maintenance of this?”

Mayor Alex Heartfield, who also serves as the president of the Park Department Board of Directors, said the city conducted public surveys regarding projects and trails were the top priority. 

“Back when we started the park master plan 10 years ago we did surveys similar to this one, and trails were the very top priority list at the time, and we have not addressed that with our park improvements. This is the first step towards addressing that,” Heartfield said.

Along with the surveys completed in the 2018 Parks Master Plan, Heartfield said the city’s Park Department Board of Directors updated their priorities and trails were top on that committee’s list of priorities.

Some of the holdups on the project included grant requirements from TPWD that required federal and state approval.

“Part of the reason why it's taking is really because it's been tied up in federal approval processes because the state of Texas, even though this is a Texas Parks and Wildlife grant, they're using federal money, and that process has taken years to get that done,” Heartfield said.

One part of the process with TPWD grant funding is determining historical sites before construction can move forward.

It was the discovery of a potential historical site in Firemen’s Park that also held up movement of the project with TPWD.

“(TPWD) partners with Texas Historical Commission (THC), because if you’ve got something that’s dedicated as park land in perpetuity, that enables preservation if a historical thing is there,” Garretty said in February. “One of the conditions of their grant is you have to go to (THC) and they have to certify that the project that you’re doing won’t disturb anything that’s there that’s potentially, in their estimation, is historical.”

With the previous trail design TPWD determined an area behind the softball fields near Firemen’s Park contained an archaeological site.

“(It was) some type of sawmill or like a grist mill... that the remnants that they uncovered indicated that there was some type of commercial facility there,” Garretty said in February.

Jacob & Martin was notified in late January that TPWD denied the redesign of the trail project in Firemen’s Park and a new design was required to move forward.

Garretty announced to the Graham City Council during their meeting Thursday, May 22 that their new design was approved by TPWD. He spoke with the city council Thursday, June 5 and said the bidding process opened and the city was encouraging local firms to bid on the contract.

Finco Family Enterprises LLC was recommended by Jacob & Martin to construct walking trails in and around Firemen’s Park and the Graham soccer fields as part of an ongoing trails project.

The company was one of five that submitted bid proposals to the city on or before Wednesday, July 9. Graham City Manager Eric Garretty said the project was bid in five parts.

“(The proposals) included a base bid for gravel trails in Firemen's Park, an alternative for asphalt trail coating in Firemen's Park, an alternative for concrete trails in Firemen's Park, a base bid for repair of the concrete pavement and steps near the old water treatment facility in the park and a base bid for a gravel trail around the Graham soccer fields,” Garretty said.

The city will discuss more on the project next week as work continues on their upcoming fiscal budget.