Work is progressing on two city projects that are scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2024.
Construction activity has slowed but remains steady, as the year winds down and the city is expected to have a new dog pound and completed tennis and pickleball courts by the spring.
Last March, the El Dorado City Council, operating as the former El Dorado Water and Public Works Board, authorized the Department of Public Works to proceed with plans to build a new city dog pound -- an effort that has been ongoing for five years.
Council members accepted the low bid of $594,341 from Diversified Construction and Design to build the new pound at the intersection of U.S. 82 and South West Avenue/Southfield Road, relocating the existing city dog pound from its longtime home next to the City Shop on Martin Luther King Boulevard.
The new pound is being constructed on two acres of land that the city is leasing from LANXESS.
In 2018, the city council agreed to build a new dog pound to replace old, dilapidated facility on Martin Luther King and move the pound to another site.
The offer from LANXESS came three years later with a 99-year lease at a rate of $10 per year.
City officials and Robert Edmonds, director of public works, favored the new site, saying there is enough space to accommodate future expansion, including the addition of more pens to house dogs.
They also said heavy traffic flow and high visibility in the area will help to curb break-ins and dog thefts -- which have been an ongoing problem at the existing pound for a number of years.
The project is being covered by the El Dorado Works tax, a one-cent city sales tax initiative that is earmarked for economic development, municipal infrastructure and quality-of life projects in the city.
The new pound comes with an enclosed cinder block building and a metal canopy; an HVAC system; a trough system that will allow for easy and sanitary disposal of waste; and plenty of LED lighting.
"The canopy is an engineered metal structure and the walls are cinder block. The internal beams are blocked around and everything has been painted and sealed so when they start hosing down dog waste, it does not compromise the metal components," Edmonds said Thursday.
The facility will include approximately 40 dog pens, six more than the number of pens in the existing pound.
In late November, Edmonds said the project was nearly 80 percent complete and on Thursday, he reported that crews have made more progress than anticipated with the onset of winter weather.
The new pound is expected to be completed by the end of January and Edmonds said it may not take more than a week to move in.
Some remaining components include the installation of a couple of HVAC units, more lights and contouring the ground to accommodate rainwater and form up the area to add sidewalks.
"The structure and conduits and everything are in place. We're going to have a lot of lighting around it to try to curb some of that vandalism," Edmonds explained.
Moreover, the project is tracking with its budget, he said.
Edmonds previously said the Department of Public Works was exploring cost-saving measures and working with Diversified to value-engineer some of the bid specifications.
After a further look into the matter, Edmonds said bid specs have remained virtually the same, noting that some of the items that could have been removed from the bid package would have affected the quality of the new facility, which Edmonds previously described as "nice and first rate."
"Some of the things that we could have done was pull the heating and air out of it and no one wanted to do that. We could have taken the cinder block partitions from between the cages and used chain link," he explained.
"Most people didn't want to lower the value of that project. We want something that is going to be with us for a long time," he continued.
The existing facility will be razed once the relocation is complete.
Mellor Park
Another project that got underway earlier this year is also nearing completion.
A few components remain on work to improve the tennis courts in Mellor Park and convert a portion of the recreational area into space for pickleball.
One segment of job has been scheduled for March, Edmonds said.
In the meantime, players have been taking advantage of the upgraded facilities.
Like the dog pound, the job is funded by the El Dorado Works tax.
The El Dorado Parks and Playgrounds Commission and local pickleball enthusiasts worked with the Department of Public Works to develop a $370,000 scope of work that includes:
Resurfacing and repairing the courts, painting new surface lines, a new netting system for the tennis courts, converting three of the six tennis courts (the upper courts on the south end of the facility) into eight pickleball courts and adding windscreens for the pickleball courts ($86,640). The three north (lower courts) were resurfaced for tennis.
An LED lighting system with automatic lighting controls ($148,238).
External and internal court fencing ($108,705); sidewalks, court furniture and organizational equipment -- paddle holders and signs -- ($15,000).
An $11,400 contingency.
In May, the El Dorado Works Board, which administers the similarly-named sales tax, and the El Dorado City Council approved an additional $26,851 to install new fencing for the dog enclosure in Mitchell Park and the basketball courts in Lions Club Park.
Work that is outstanding on the Mellor Park project includes vertical concrete pours on the north end of the courts; a concrete divider between the south and north courts; and installation of the perimeter fencing, Edmonds explained.
He said the surface treatment is scheduled to be added to the courts in March.
Afterward, lighting and partitions between the pickleball courts will be installed.
The courts, particularly the pickleball courts, are playable and have been put to good use.
Pickleball -- a paddle sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton. ping-pong and Wiffle ball -- has rapidly risen in popularity within the past several years in U.S. and the wave has hit El Dorado and Union County.
Several local pickleball tournaments, including fundraisers for charitable causes, have been held.
A big draw for the sport is that it attracts a wide range of ages, players have said.
Local players have long cited the need for more public pickleball facilities.
Pickleball was one of the ideas that local residents submitted when members of the El Dorado Parks and Playgrounds Commission sought public input in 2019 for the latest batch of park improvements that have been ongoing since 2020.
The Mellor Park tennis courts, which have been seldom used for tennis in recent years, became top spot for pickleball games.
The Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado and the El Dorado Golf and Country Club also made space for pickleball within the past few years.
Earlier this year, the EPPC worked with a group, to which late Commissioner Alexis Alexander jokingly referred as "The Pickleball Mafia", to draft a funding proposal for the EWB.
Edmonds said there have been a couple minor changes in the Mellor Park project -- for instance, the gate locations were moved from the corner of the courts' perimeter to the center --, but the job is on track to be completed by the spring and within budget.
He noted that once the surface treatment is applied, players will not be able to use the courts for several days.