Mill Creek sports park work nears finish line

MILL CREEK — The long-delayed Mill Creek Sports Park finally will be ready for use the first week of the new year.

Lynn Devoir, recreation supervisor for Mill Creek, sent an e-mail to the Silver Lake Soccer Association telling it the artificial playing surface will be ready for soccer practices and games starting Jan. 5.

"The goal is to allow the soccer association to use it in the evening for practices for select teams," said Doug Jacobson, Mill Creek’s public works director and the person supervising park construction. "At this time, the belief is, yes, it will be done."

The park’s AstroPlay artificial playing surface has been installed for "a while," Jacobson said, but construction on the restrooms and paving on the sidewalks wasn’t done.

"We’re getting pretty close," Jacobson said.

The 33-stall parking lot may not be fully paved by the opening date, but the gravel surface will be usable.

Also, the permanent fence around the skateboard park still has to be installed, and some minor work on the park’s baseball diamond isn’t finished. That work includes installing bases and putting benches in the dugouts.

Concrete was poured for the 10,000-square-foot skateboard park late last week. The city hopes it will open in mid-January.

The complex was scheduled to open around Labor Day, and then the date was pushed back until Sept. 28. The completion date got pushed further back because of a variety of delays, some of which included poor weather.

In addition, subcontractors being unable to start work because another subcontractor wasn’t finished also held things up.

The city has provisions in its bid contracts to collect $200 a day in for each day the park has been delayed in opening. Jacobson said a report is being put together for city attorney Scott Missal, who will review it, and then present various options to the City Council sometime in January.

A formal opening celebration may take place in early March when Mill Creek Little League has its season-opening ceremonies.

The city had planned to have the ceremony Sept. 28, in conjunction with the city’s 20th anniversary celebration, but delays forced that event to City Hall.