Progress is becoming more visible on construction of the four-field Pattee Park soccer complex on W. Fifth Street in Pattee Park with the pouring of the concrete pathway soon to circle a 14-foot-deep fish pond.
The Perry City Council received an update on the project at Monday night’s council meeting when they approved a payment of $192,000 to Springlake Construction for work completed through Sept. 23.
“Progress is being made, and it’s looking pretty good,” said Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson told the council. “They’re doing some final grading on some areas, and we should be on track to kicking some soccer balls around next year.”
The $680,000 complex is located west of the Pattee Park baseball and softball diamonds between W. Fifth Street and Diagonal Road and will feature the four soccer pitches plus a wetland buffer trail and retention pond.
“Matt and I were just out on site, and they have a large concrete pump truck out there pouring the trail around the pond,” Peterson said, referring to Matt Ferrier, the city’s engineering consultant from Bolton and Menk. “They’ve got all the fields seeded, so they met their seeding date for that.”
Council member Chuck Schott said he has gotten positive comments on the project from Perry residents as they noticed the progress.
“It’s nice to get the news out there and let people know because some of them didn’t,” Schott said. “Since we had our discussion two weeks ago from our last meeting, and we had some press coverage of the discussion regarding the soccer complex and the pond, I’ve had several citizens stop me on the street and say, ‘We wondered what was happening down there. We’re really going to have a pond to walk around? And we’re really going to have this? and we’re really going to have that?'”
First Ward Council member Dean Berkland asked about the final grading for the fields.
“I rode my fat tire across that whole thing,” Berkland said, “and it looks great, coming along nice, but they’ve got some great big, deep truck marks through that. Will they refill those? I was going to say, ‘Man, that’s going to be a rut for a soccer ball.'”
Peterson said the fields would be smooth when finished, and the pond will be stocked with fish.
“Another common question I get asked about the pond is if there will be fish in it, Peterson said. “We are going to go for some money from the DNR and try to get some fish from the DNR to put in there. Ultimately, I’d like to have a path off from the bike trail to a kind of handicap-accessible pier, if you will, where people could fish off of that. I think that would be a nice addition to that.”
Josh Shields, the Bolton and Menk engineer leading the Pattee Park project, said the pond would be deeper than 10 feet and fed by ground water, making it suitable for fishing. It would not be fenced but planted round with 3-foot to 4-foot native vegetation, he said.
Phase I of the project included the buffer strip and retention pond. Perry was awarded $100,000 in matching funds from the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) program to pay for the phase I pond and buffer. The soccer project has a target finish date of Oct. 31.
