A request is being made for the North Little Rock City Council to waive formal bidding requirements and authorize up to $52,000 for waterline repair and drainage improvements at Dickey-Stephens Park in time for the Arkansas Travelers' baseball season.
Just over a year ago, sinkholes appeared along the outfield's warning track and bullpen after heavy rains, but it's unclear whether the current problems are related, city spokesman Nathan Hamilton said Friday afternoon.
"It is very possibly related to the same issues we had last year, but it is in a completely different spot, and we are still doing our investigation, and the scope of the problem is much smaller," Hamilton said. "We're dealing with one pipe rather than an entire irrigation system. We're still looking at it."
The proposed ordinance to waive bidding requirements and authorize the expenditure for the repairs was added Friday to the council's agenda for its meeting at 6 p.m. Monday. The legislation also contains an emergency clause so work can begin immediately upon acceptance of the lowest quote from "qualified companies."
The city-owned Dickey-Stephens Park opened in 2007 as home to the Class AA minor league Arkansas Travelers. The team's first home game is April 6.
Though the waterline broke last summer, with a temporary line having replaced it, it took meetings with outside engineers on "a number of occasions" through the fall to come up with an estimated fix, Hamilton said. Of the total appropriation requested, $40,000 was already in this year's city budget under the Sales Tax Capital Improvement Fund. The proposed legislation adds another $12,000 from that source.
"We're in a time crunch," as a result of the wait and with the baseball season starting soon, Hamilton said. "That's why [the legislation has been added] and the waiving of formal bidding and the emergency clause is there.
"We wanted to make sure we got [the allocation] on the books and got the ordinance passed in case we needed to bid it," he said. "We want to play baseball."
Replacing a 4-inch waterline that connects to the field's sprinkler system and improving drainage near the bullpen and batting cage areas are listed in the legislation as the work needed.
A period of heavy rains and Arkansas River flooding in December 2015 resulted in several sinkholes in the ballpark's playing field. The largest was reported by city officials to be about 35 feet in diameter and at least 6 feet deep.
The city allocated about $450,000 to make the repairs last January-March, including rehabilitation and replacement of about 600 feet of drainage pipes, replacing a bullpen fence, installing about 2,000 square yards of grass and cleaning 70 cubic yards of material out of a pump station.
"The pipe we're looking at was not worked on last time, and that section of the field was not worked on last time," Hamilton said.
The ballpark is near the downtown riverfront, and its playing surface is 12 feet below street level.
Sinkholes also formed in the ballpark's second year, when a hole about 15 feet wide opened in the outfield. Smaller sinkholes have appeared and have been repaired through the 2015 baseball season.
North Little Rock voters approved a two-year, 1 percent city sales tax in 2005 to pay for the $40.4 million ballpark's construction. The city used about $28 million from that tax revenue to build the ballpark at 400 W. Broadway. Private contributions for ballpark amenities and the value of the donated property make up the remaining cost.
The Arkansas Travelers Baseball Club leases the ballpark from the North Little Rock Public Building Authority, a board independent from city government that is responsible for the remaining debt on the ballpark.
Metro on 02/11/2017