The long wait for the opening of the Southeast area park is
almost over for Valley View subdivision residents.
Construction on the 2.5-acre site will be completed in mid-July,
but the park won’t be open to the public until mid-August. A
30-day
”
establishment
”
period is necessary to allow the park’s bushes, trees and grass
to take firm root, Associate Civil Engineer David Rubcic said.
Hollister – The long wait for the opening of the Southeast area park is almost over for Valley View subdivision residents.
Construction on the 2.5-acre site will be completed in mid-July, but the park won’t be open to the public until mid-August. A 30-day “establishment” period is necessary to allow the park’s bushes, trees and grass to take firm root, Associate Civil Engineer David Rubcic said.
“On a daily basis people drive by honking horns, giving thumbs up and asking when the park will be completed,” Rubcic said.
Construction of the park, located at the corner of Enterprise Road and Mimosa Street, began in March, and many of its major components have already been completed. One of the most important features to subdivision residents was the water feature, Rubcic said. A huge metal whale surrounded by fountains will squirt water from the tail and blowhole and provide residents with a fun way to keep cool during the summer months. The water fountains can be activated by a sensor that will be easy for children to operate, Rubcic said.
“It’s going to be pretty neat,” Rubcic said. “It gets hot here in the summer so (visitors) be able to cool off.”
The Southeast area park will be the only park in Hollister with a water feature, landscape architect Elke Lucking said. A 4,000 gallon holding tank will re-circulate water to and from the whale’s fountains. The pumps and circulation system will automatically replenish its own water supply Lucking said.
Lucking said that construction on first phase of the park is nearly complete, but that the park had been designed to incorporate additional features sometime in the future. Although no dates have been set, the second phase will add features such as a play area for toddlers, a shaded area, expanded walk ways and “a little bit more of everything,” Lucking said.
Construction costs may run slightly over the project’s original bid of $613,000, but not by much. “We’re doing every thing we can to maintain the bid,” Rubcic said.
He said extra costs may run $4,000 to $8,000 over budget, but the city had planned for possible overruns. Construction on the project has gone smoothly and the general contractor, Elite Landscaping, has been very responsive, Rubcic said.
The idea for Southeast park was conceived in the early 1990s. A few years later several West of Fairview developments dedicated the five acres of park land. Housing developer Award Homes was to develop 2.5 acres of the parkland, leaving the other 2.5 acres to be developed by the city of Hollister.
City officials had waited for Award Homes’ plans to materialize before the city constructed its portion, former city councilman Tony Bruscia told the Free Lance in 2003. But that never happened, because the Award Homes project was eventually rejected.
The city’s 2002 general plan had called for a park to be built in the Valley View subdivision sometime between 2007 and 2012, according to Rubcic, but after holding several well-attended community meetings later that year, it was evident the park was a bigger priority than expected.
In January, after a long planning process, in which subdivision residents participated, and following the pleas of two subdivision residents and Dist. 5 Councilwoman Monica Johnson, the Hollister City Council voted to approve plans for the park.
Johnson, who campaigned last year with the Southeast park being one of her priorities, said that the park is very important for the Valley View subdivision and the entire city of Hollister. She said that many of the delays in the parks construction were due to poor planning by previous city councils.
“They didn’t set up the structure and infrastructure necessary to get a park built in that area,” Johnson said. “This park is very important to the neighborhood and to all of Hollister.”
Brett Rowland covers education for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
