The City Council on Monday hired a construction manager to build the first phase of a new community park in east Mansfield, a year-long project that could begin by the end of February.
Williams Community Park will be sculpted from an 80-acre tract on Matlock Road. It will be the city's 14th park and an important link in the planned extension of the Walnut Creek Linear Park from the city's western edge to the east at Joe Pool Lake.The council approved a contract of up to $321,000 with Dean Construction. Dean will serve as the construction manager at risk, which means it will help take bids on subcontracting work and then give the city a guaranteed price on the construction project.The roughly $3 million first phase includes a small parking lot, restrooms, picnic areas, some enhancements to the existing pond, a nature preserve with seating areas for school field trips and a boardwalk along the edges of the creeks flood plain. Also, the linear park will be extended about an eighth of a mile through part of Williams Community Park, said park planner Hillary Bueker.She said the city currently has about 800 acres of park land, including 518 acres of developed parks.Also at the meeting, the council approved a proposed land swap between the Mansfield Economic Development Corp., which administers a half-cent sales tax for business projects, and BCB Transport, which wants to quit leasing and build facilities for its trucking and logistics business, said co-owners Rick Larkin and Brian Brzozowski, who attended the meeting.BCB serves large corporations such as Pier 1, GE and Whirlpool from its rented facilities -- a 25,000-square-foot building in the Mansfield Industrial Park, and a 60,000-square-foot building in Grand Prairie.The company wants to consolidate operations in Mansfield -- part of a proposed $6.8 million, two-phase expansion with 75 jobs -- but needs more than the 5.5-acre site that it owns at the end of Antler Drive. The two phases would add more than 200,000 square feet of industrial space.The MEDC has 12 acres nearby in the southeast corner of South Second Avenue and Airport Drive that it has owned for years, said Scott Welmaker, the city's economic development director. He said that with the BCB site, the MEDC would be able to extend Antler Drive.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
