Yauger Park repairs and updates on the way

The Olympia City council has approved a $1.1 million contract for Yauger Park field renovations..

Olympia Parks department project engineer Jake Lund said on Tuesday, June 14, they opened the bid for the park renovation projects last May 25. "The two bids we received come back substantially higher than we expected."

The summary of bids Lund furnished to the city council included a recommendation to award the work to Active Construction Inc., for a total of $1,153,153.

"We broke out the projects in some aspects… We broke that out because we were unsure how high the bids would come back. And then if we had a budget, we would add those other three items," Lund explained to council members.

The bid request was divided into:

• Base repairs: Baseball backstops, structural concrete, flatwork concrete
• Skate court and pathway asphalt repair
• Field 4 irrigation construction.

Lund said they chose to do the base bid projects now and hold the other projects for the future.

Yauger Park, according to Lund, was developed in early 1980.

"Those ball fields were put in from 1980-1982,” Lund recounted. “The backstops there are the original backstops. They may have made some repairs on the chain link, but they are the same backstops for the last 40 years."

The Parks department identified replacing the backstops, which are old and not high enough to protect spectators from foul balls.

"Along with that, it makes sense to (do) the dugouts…the access to the dugouts is not ADA accessible. As you know, Parks has a big commitment to accessibility for everything, including our ball fields," said Lund as he explained the project's scope.

According to Lund, they started planning the project in 2020. "Here we are, everything is increasing in price, whether it is materials, fuel costs, and even just finding contractors is tough at this time of year."

Lund said the Parks department has proposed another backstops project, for LBA Park, which will not be funded this year. "Some of the money we had this year for that project will go towards Yauger."

He said they have other projects that will also push back. The ball fields make up 37% of the park system's maintenance backlog.