In an effort to provide detailed information on the Capital Improvement Plan presented to Milford City Council in late April, Milford Times will publish a series of articles detailing projects staff has identified in the plan. Council will approve the CIP, which is a plan used during the budget process, in June. The first of the series will provide details on one of the items identified in a recent survey as very important but where the city lacks quality – Parks and Recreation.
When the Milford City Council approves the CIP, they are authorizing staff to move forward in seeking funds that may cover the cost of the project, whether that be grant funding or funds within the current budget available to bring the project to fruition. According to Mark Whitfield, the plan is just that, a plan, but council is aware when they approve it that staff will move forward with projects included in the plan.
“It is not a budget. The CIP is a living, breathing document that is in constant change throughout the year, but updated annually for Council’s review and comment. The funding for projects in the plan come about with the annual budget,” Whitfield said. “The money identified in the plan is projected costs over the life of the project. We use the plan for applying for potential grants when opportunities arise. In other words, we would not apply for a grant for a project, if that project was not identified in the CIP.”
In the current CIP that council will approve, Parks & Recreation showed $3.7 million in funds authorized in prior CIPs. Over the next five years, projects proposed would cost $15.1 million. Brad Dennehy, Director of Parks & Recreation explained that some of the projects were high priority while others were medium or low priority.
“We have a request for additional courts, tennis courts, basketball, pickleball. That’s kicked out to 2028,” Dennehy said. “We’ve had requests for additional lighting at the basketball court downtown, by the river, and also the pickleball courts lighting as well.”
The CIP requested, at a medium level, the ability to construct new recreational courts that would include basketball, tennis and pickleball at a cost of $200,000 out of the general fund. Those projects would be completed in the 2028 budget year, but would meet requests of residents in the recent survey. Currently, the city is planning to construct pickleball and basketball courts in Deep Branch Park. Lighting for the basketball and pickleball courts totalled $100,000.
“This is a for a community center or recreation center. It’s not till 2028 we believe that there is a need for this. Again, I’m not going to spend too much time on that, because it’s some years out,” Dennehy said. “There’s a big number, and obviously we would be looking for additional grant funding for that.”
The community center would be constructed in Marvel Square and is another item that a recent survey found residents wanted. The estimated cost is $8.0 million which was why Dennehy pushed it to 2028.
“The middle school recently put in a volleyball I think both boys and girls. We’ve had a request for an outdoor beach volleyball court, which we would put alongside our building on Franklin Street,” Dennehy said. “We’ve had requests for frisbee golf and where that would be is to be determined and we do not have that until 2030.”
The downtown restroom project was put on hold as federal grant funding was sorted out but should be completed in the current budget process.
“This is a high priority for me. It’s basically having an outside consultant come in and actually evaluate what our needs are. And I think that would help the council as well, in terms of, we talked about the citizen surveys, but this would be an actual consultant coming in looking at our programs, looking at our passive and active recreation,” Dennehy said. “I know Councilwoman Wilson has sat down with my staff and is very familiar with what we’re trying to achieve there, so that’s something that we would like to get going on this year, but you would know this better than anyone else.”
The cost for the consultant is estimated at $50,000, but Dennehy told council there were resources at the state level that could help cover those costs.
“These are the gateways into the City of Milford. It’s part of the mayor and council’s plan for greater beautification. These are plans that were approved by our tree board, our parks and rec board, and also by the council themselves,” Dennehy said. “So they are out to bid at the moment, and as I said, I’m hoping to have contracts for the plantings and also for the signage as well here for council shortly.”
Over the next five years, the beautification project will cost an estimated $130,000.
“This is a maintenance issue on Goat Island bridge. It’s just removing the warped and twisted boards on the pedestrian walkway, and that’s due to begin here very shortly, which prior funding has already been approved,” Dennehy said. “I think we’re going back with a high-density material. It’s thicker than regular pressure-treated. So, it’s marine grade. I think in that capacity, with the width on it, all our other bridges have that on it. For whatever reason, with those bridges, they seem to do better with that marine-grade treated lumber.”
The cost of the bridge repairs were approved in prior CIP’s and are estimated at $36,000. Public Works will assist with repair and replacement of irrigation wells at Tony Silicato Park at an estimated cost of $20,000.
One of the most controversial projects in the CIP was Deep Creek Park, planned on the Sharp property purchased by the city in 2019 and approved as a park project in 2021. In last year’s CIP, funding was approved for $1.1 million for the park project. Whitfield explained more on the grants and funding based on the CIP.
“Some projects are identified being funded by grants, in other words, they will not happen unless we receive grant monies to do them. A case in point was the bulkhead wall at the old firehall property. Council stated they would only do the project if we receive grant money to pay for it. Same is true with the Deep Creek Park. We would not have sought grant funding, if council did not want the project in the CIP.”
The project has been in the CIP since 2021 and approved by council each year since it was added. The cost of the project, spread across five years, includes almost $1 million in grant funding already accepted by the city and is estimated at $2.4 million.
“I think one of my highest priorities would be our concrete abutment down here, across from the pickleball courts, across from Park Place. We anticipate this to be an expensive fix. However, I’ve put this project and the also the other concrete abutment down by the firehouse in the bond bill,” Dennehy said. “We were fortunate to get funding for the bond bill for the one behind Carlisle, so I’m optimistic we can get some funding for this, but we certainly can’t have temporary fencing down there. We’re going to have to fix that, and it’s going to be a costly endeavor.”
The reference to “behind Carlisle” referred to a retaining wall behind the former Carlisle Fire Company on Church Street.”
The concrete abutment behind the old firehouse is to rectify that, extend the last piece of our Riverwalk,” Dennehy said. “And we have been successful in getting $350,000 in grant money on that. And again, I’ve put money in the bond bill, hopefully for the remainder of that repair.”
Other projects in the Parks & Recreation CIP include handrail lighting along the Riverwalk, a project that began last year as well as mowing equipment. Playgrounds throughout the city were also included in the CIP with requests to replace equipment near the Parks & Recreation Building as well as the Can-Do Playground. Dennehy also requested funding to redevelop Bicentennial Park as well as the Farmer’s Market area on Walnut Street. Dennehy also requested funding to purchase additional land for greenspace as well as funding for picnic pavilions in two parks.
“We would like to install some proposed exercise equipment at the Can-Do playground along with a walking track. Again, this is not a high priority, but we’ve had requests for people who walk out there to actually stop, and it’s almost an outdoor gym, so you would stop different sections along the walkway, and whether it’s sort of pull ups or sit ups or dips or those types of things. Again, not a high priority, but be nice to have.”
Councilwoman Madula Kalesis asked why the Silicato Park was chosen.
“I do love the idea. I’m going to be honest, like I see it all over the world. People use it all the time. I always wondered why we didn’t have it,” Kalesis said. “I see it overseas, and while I love the idea, I feel like it needs to be downtown, somewhere where we have more people, more walkability, where it will get used more I don’t feel like anyone would use over there at all.”
Dennehy replied that they could look at other locations.
“Our reasoning for putting it out there is we see that trail used at all hours, including the city manager. I don’t think he was the one requesting this. He might be, he would be encouraged to use the any of the equipment,” Dennehy said. “But also, at this time of the year, we have a lot of our soccer programs going on there. We have a lot of parents who turn up, drop their kids off, but they don’t leave. They actively walk around that trail while their kids are in soccer practice, or what other activities we have going on So, we had requests for that, so that was the rationale behind it. But we can certainly look at potentially putting it, you know, anywhere.”
Finally, the City Hall Plaza remained in the CIP. Dennehy explained that the project was approved in previous CIPs with funds allocated in the General Fund to cover costs up to $336,223 with almost $65,000 already expended in design costs for the project.
“This project is classified as “new” despite engineering funding beginning with FY23 CIP because the initial concept was not supported at the City Council level, and redesign is underway per Council direction. The general project description to renovate the area in front of City Hall remains accurate, but a variety of changes in the design will reduce the scope and cost of the project by roughly $200,000,” Dennehy noted in his presentation. “The paver area is being reduced, the bollards are being removed to continue to permit vehicle access through the lane, sitework scope is being reduced, and other measures all contribute to the reduced cost.”
Dennehy presented a reduced design that fell within the budget and was still met with resistance from council, requiring additional design costs to be expended to reduce the plan even more.
Economic Development will be the highlight in the second part of the CIP series.
