With its bare ground and weeds, Ochoa Park isn’t much of a park but it will be by next year following the Ceres City Council’s hiring of contractor.
On Monday the council tapped Stockbridge General Contracting Inc. to make the improvements which eastside Ceres residents had input on to finish what the city started. The contract will cost the city $1.937 million and a 10 percent contingency brings the total to $2.13 million.
The action was applauded by Vice Mayor Bret Silveira who noted “it’s been a long time coming we’ve been messing with the Ochoa Park thing.
“This is one of the best days in my four years in the city that we are finally going to see that park completed,” said Silveira. “Not the day after tomorrow but sometime soon. This was the last hurdle to get that park completed.”
In 2020 the city got as far as grading the site and installing some landscaping materials, a play structure, a volleyball area, concrete benches, concrete pavement and an area for cornhole games. But a lack of money prevented the city from moving forward with a range of improvements that were in the park design. Since then the park has had an uninviting appearance.
The council decided to use their windfall of ARPA funds to complete the park and also tapping into money originally earmarked for Lions Park in north Ceres.
Based on input from the community at two public workshops, the city will be installing picnic tables, shade structures, benches, a couple of basketball half courts, Pickle ball courts, a 16-foot by 16-foot shade structure with barbecue grills, drinking fountain, doggie-pot waste station and trash receptacles. Grass, shrubs and trees will also be added with a full irrigation system installed.
City Engineer Kevin Waugh predicted that Ochoa Park will be the pride of the city once finished by the summer of 2024.
“Basically we took everything that we could from our surveys and our public workshops and created a design that needs additional walkway from the corner to the northwest as well as adding the Pickle Ball and basketball courts,” said Waugh.
Most of the funding for the $2.3 million in Ochoa Park improvements will come from the city’s share of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds passed by Congress in March 2021. The funds must be committed by Dec. 31, 2024 and spent by Dec. 31, 2026.
The council agreed to spend $1.05 million from the first installment of ARPA funds, of which $400,000 was allocated to Ochoa Park, and taking the $650,000 initially allocated to Lions Park. The council also Ok’d the use of $1,088,100 from the second ARPA allocation of $5.8 million. Another funding source is $172,000 in neighborhood park development fees.
The city has not identified how it will pay to finish Lions Park.
