Rotary Park in La Salle soon will get restrooms, shelter after council approves bids

La Salle’s Rotary Park will be busy this spring and summer as construction continues on a path to Prairie Lake and soon on a planned restroom facility and shelter.

Monday night, La Salle City Council approved two bids for the park’s restrooms and shelter plans. The bid for the restrooms was approved at $268,651 and the shelter was approved at $35,820.

The restroom bids received by the city were $80,000 more than the city engineer’s estimate for the project. This discrepancy was caused by the inflation of building materials because of the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

City Engineer Brian Brown said his estimates are based on the information from the city’s architects and usually provide a fairly accurate representation of the final project.

“Obviously building materials and everything is sky high for different reasons like COVID, weather and shutdowns in places,” said Mayor Jeff Grove.

The inflation also will affect the shelter project that came in about $5,000 more than the city engineer’s estimate.

The planned restroom was designed to be as touch-free as possible including motion sensing sinks, soap dispensers, dryers and toilets. Other specifics of the facility include fiberglass doors to prevent rusting and a metal room because of the high velocity of winds in that area.

The structure also will have a filtered water bottle filling station on the outside for visitors.

The shelter will house some picnic tables and provide a space for visitors to escape from the sun, wind or rain and still enable them to enjoy the landscape.

The city of La Salle received a grant with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources allocated to help pay for large portions of the planned projects.

The majority of the council agreed to move forward with the two proposed bids because of the uncertainty of decreased material prices at any time in the near future and the time frame of the grant from the IDNR.

“Unfortunately I don’t see material prices going down on anything because we’ve just gone through a pandemic paying top dollar; why would anybody drop their prices now,” said Alderman Jordan Crane. “That’s just the way I feel about it.”

A fishing pier also is slated for the location but did not receive a bid.

At Rotary Park, the path to Prairie Lake is estimated to be about 50% completed.

The construction company was run into some problems with soft ground and underground water. Solutions have been planned for these problems expected when the project began.

Despite some setbacks, the project is going well according to Brown and Crane and it is currently expected to be completed ahead of schedule.

With the planned completion of the path, city officials along with Police Chief Mike Smudzinski will begin working on ways to establish ordinances and ways to police the area to ensure visitors and the public safety.

The path was constructed to be used by visitors on foot and bicycle only.

City staff reminded the public Rotary Park and the path the Prairie Lake doesn’t allow any type of off-road or motorized vehicles.