Town and Country Moving Forward With Longview Parking Project

At Monday's Town and Country Board of Aldermen meeting, aldermen voted 5:3 to move forward with the parking lot expansion project. The vote authorizes the Parks and Recreation Department to apply for a $4,000 planning grant to prepare engineering construction drawings for the parking lot expansion project.  

Residents also spoke out against the project Monday night, as they have at previous meetings. They have also created an online petition in opposition of the parking expansion.

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Former Town and Country mayor Skip Mange heads up the Longview Farm Park Ad-Hoc Committee which recommended adding 15 additional parking spots to the park. He tells Patch that although the board voted to apply for the grant Monday night, the true decision comes in June when the board will have to vote on whether or not to hire an engineer.

"That money will not be spent until a decision is made in June," Mange said. "They will have to decide whether they want to hire an engineer, so the actual decision on this will be made in June."

Mange said the three aldermen who voted against applying for the grant were Al Gerber, Steve Fons and Tim Welby.

"The three people who voted against this would like to have more parking data," Mange explained. He agreed it is a valid point. "It was just unfortunate that last year our equipment failed and we could not do this. Their opposition is that, 'Is there really a need for more parking there?' and the way we prove that is to have a season worth of traffic counts."

Mange said the traffic counters will be reinstalled at the park as soon as the weather permits. 

In an effort to address resident's concerns, the board of aldermen agreed to hold a workshop in the next month or so on the uses of the park and activities that will be allowed in the park.

"It's time for the elected officials to give some authorization and direction to the parks director as far as the activities that should be allowed in the park," Mange tells Patch. 

This should all be completed by June when the board of aldermen will have to make the decision on whether to move forward with hiring an engineering firm to actually design the project.

"An ordinance will have to go before the board in June whether to hire the engineer. That's the second decision point. At that time, they can decide to not move forward," Mange explained. "By that time, they will have held their workshops and have had a couple of months worth of traffic data."

Mange tells Patch that the engineering costs are conservatively estimated at approximately $20,000. The $4,000 grant from Monday night would subtract from that expense, so the cost to the city would be $16,000 for engineering costs. 

According to Mange, another grant application would then be submitted for the construction costs. That grant covers 100 percent of the construction costs and 50 percent of any landscaping that is included, Mange said. When the project is completed, the total of the two grants would be about 85% of the total costs of the project, which is currently estimated at $120,000 for construction and engineering. Mange said it would result in a total cost to the city of approximately $18,500 for the entire project.

Mange also addressed the board and public Monday night about the online petition created by residents. He said he was concerned about the petition, calling it "very misleading and inaccurate." Mange's statement on the petition can be found above in the PDF portion of this article.

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