DeKalb Park District awards $550K to renovate League of Women Voters Park

A project to renovate League of Women Voters Park was awarded more than $550,000 by the DeKalb Park District on Thursday to help with construction costs.

The award was one of six bids provided to the DeKalb park board for review, officials said.

DeKalb-based Elliott and Wood was awarded a $550,279 contract for park renovations. Work will include replacing the loop trail and playground equipment, adding a half-basketball court and gaming areas, installing a shaded seating area, and constructing a large native prairie restoration area, park board documents show.

Alternatives were included as part of the bid package for constructing the path with concrete instead of asphalt, planting the rain garden area with plugs instead of seed mix, and color-coating the basketball court instead of just striping the lines on the asphalt.

Executive Director Paul Zepezauer urged the park board to support district staff’s recommendation to approve the second-lowest bid.

“Elliott and Wood is working here already on the pool project,” Zepezauer said. “They’re in DeKalb, local company. [They’ve] done a lot of work here at the park district over the years. We have no concerns about their ability to get the job done. [We] really want to get the job done before the end of the year so that we can close the project out [and] submit for reimbursement.”

While Daybreaker Inc. was the lowest bidder for the project, Elliott and Wood was the second lowest, park board documents show.

Zepezauer advised the board not to choose the lowest bidder.

“Do you want to take a risk with a contractor that could be a problem that doesn’t have the experience and try to save $106,000?” Zepezauer said. “Or do you not want to do that? We’re recommending you don’t do that.”

No one on the park board was sold on steering from district staff’s recommendation.

The park board approved the bid in a unanimous vote. Of the three alternative bids, however, the panel voiced an interest in asphalt over concrete for constructing the path.

The park district also recently was awarded $600,000 by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and its Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development Grant program for renovations to League of Women Voters Park.