Turf at the Perry Soccer Complex is looking more and more like a soccer pitch should thanks to JM Lawn and Landscaping of Ames, which aims to finish up the regrading and hydroseeding work this weekend.
“We’re pushing the envelope a little with the timing,” a JM Lawn and Landscaping workman said Saturday, “but we think we’ll finish up in the next day or two.”
The Perry City Council in August judged the quality of the turf to be unacceptable and has been working with Perry’s engineering consultant, Bolton and Menk, and the project’s contractor, Polk City-based Springlake Construction, to finish the $680,000 job.
At the August city council meeting, council member John Andorf said he was “disappointed” by the “lack of progress” on the project, noting the four-field complex “had a lot of community support and a lot of donor support, in some cases some big donor support as well as a lot of small donors. I really feel like we owe them a lot to get that done. I feel like we’ve let them down so far, to be quite honest.”
The council asked Bolton and Menk to present updates at each meeting until the project is complete. Josh Shields of Bolton and Menk gave the council its most recent update at the Oct. 16 meeting.
“The two fields to the west that were redone, the grass is coming in really nice,” Shields said. “I did notice a couple of areas they need to touch up once things fill in a little bit, but it’s looking pretty good.”
Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson agreed, saying he “walked through it today, and the two fields on the west side just really look good. They’re nice, smooth, and the grass is really coming in perfectly.”
The northeastern and southeastern fields remain to be seeded. Workers from JM Lawn and Landscaping were seen Saturday treating and seeding the surface of the northeast field.
Shields said discussions involving Bolton and Menk, Springlake Construction and its bonding agent, Merchants Bonding Co., and Perry City Attorney DuWayne Dalen and the city’s bonding agent are aiming “to iron wrinkles out, substantiate exactly what needs to be done, the timeframe expectation that it needs to occur within and any ultimatums that come out of that.”
Bolton and Menk is “continuing to hammer on them and make it a priority,” Shields said, “to make sure they know we expect it to be a priority so that we can get this wrapped up and get some closure to the project.”
Spring Lake’s original $450,000 bid for the project was accepted by the Perry City Council in February 2016, with a target finish date of Oct. 31, 2016.
The soccer complex, located west of the Pattee Park baseball and softball diamonds between W. Fifth Street and Diagonal Road, features four soccer pitches plus a wetland buffer trail and retention pond.
Plans for the soccer complex were first unveiled in August 2014, with the Perry Soccer Club immediately donating $10,000 toward the soccer field portion of the project and the Hotel Pattee adding another $5,000 to the fund.
The city of Perry landed $100,000 in matching funds in October 2014 from the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) program to pay for the phase I pond and buffer, and Tyson Fresh Meats donated $100,000 toward the buffer trail and retention pond in the summer 2015.
Along with the Tyson pledge, other local business, industry and civic groups contributing to the athletic fields were ITC and the Bock Family Foundation.
Matt Ferrier of Bolton and Menk told the city council in August the city is protected from financial liability for the faulty turf.
“We’re holding onto retainage and have not pushed forward with any payment,” Ferrier said, noting that Springlake Construction is “technically within their liquidated-damages period of the project, so they are liable for $500 a day after the completion date,” which was Oct 31, 2016.
