The Lions Club Fitness Park on the Leo Adler Memorial Pathway may get a bathroom facility pending the approval of a grant the city is applying for.

The Baker City Council approved a resolution that authorizes a grant application to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) at Tuesday’s meeting.

Councilors Daniel Nilsson and Loran Joseph were absent from the meeting.

“There’s a need at that end of the pathway to have a restroom facility,” Public Works Director Michelle Owen said.

The fitness park is located near the intersection of Kirkway and H streets. The site of the park once was occupied by a home so the water, sewer and electric utilities would not have to be extended to accommodate the prefabricated restroom that would be placed there. The restroom would be similar to the one at Central Park, but just a single model.

A restroom facility at the fitness park is a priority in the city’s Parks Master Plan adopted in 2015.

Owen said the estimated cost of the project is about $57,000. If awarded, the grant would pay 60 percent of the project and require a 40-percent match in funding by the city, which amounts to about $22,700.

Councilor Dan McQuisten asked where those matching funds would come from if they weren’t recouped through possible additional grants.

Owen said that would be a general fund expense because the parks department does not have the additional monies. It would be subject to Council approval for the coming fiscal year. But there is a possibility that the parks department might see some savings left over from the current fiscal year that could be applied to the project, she said. Staff will also be pursuing as many grant opportunities as they can, including a Leo Adler grant that could pay almost half of the matching funds requirement of the OPRD grant.

Retired Bureau of Land Management administrator Dave Hunsaker spoke to the council about the project.

“When (my wife and I) saw this on the agenda, we thought this was a really good idea — a good proposal,” he said. “We want to go on record as saying we support it.”

But Hunsaker also believes the city needs to look at possibly replacing the restroom facility at Geiser-Polman Park.

“That restroom facility itself is the subject of conversation periodically,” he said. “And it’s not necessarily in a positive way. I don’t say this to shine on anybody … but I’m wondering if that facility — and others are also — if that facility itself is not running up to the limit of its age — of its useful life.”

Hunsaker estimated a cost of about $70,000 to replace those restrooms. Using the bandstand project and playground projects as examples, he said a lot could be accomplished with community support.

Like the pathway restroom, Leo Adler funding and other grants could pay for a restroom project at Geiser-Polman Park.

“When so many people participate, things happen,” Hunsaker said. “And they happen in a big way.”

The Council also approved three-year capital plans as approved by the public works advisory committee (PWAC). They include water infrastructure improvements with an estimated cost of about $1.2 million for the coming fiscal year.

The purchase and installation of 3,880 feet of water pipe to replace aging pipe in mountain water line that brings water from the city’s watershed will cost $582,000.

The next biggest piece of the water capital plan is $200,000 that is slated for the planning and design of a municipal well at the golf course. Those funds will pay for engineering studies and water permit work regarding the city’s existing water rights. The development of the well is part of the water facilities master plan.

“We want to be ready to drill a well if we need to,” Owen said.

McQuisten asked Owen to clarify the purpose of the municipal well.

She said it serves a two-fold purpose. One is to augment the supply of water to town in high demand summer months. The other is to have a supply of water for town if the watershed is not available for some reason.

“The primary reason we started down this path is if we had an issue in the watershed where surface water is not available to us — potentially a forest fire,” Owen said

Year two of the water capital plan includes $600,000 to actually drill the well and for consultant services. Year three includes $500,000 for other construction of infrastructure related to the well facility including well house pump station and chlorination system.

One important piece of the water plan includes a watershed fuels reduction project. Owen explained that funds budgeted for the coming fiscal year ($15,000) and years two and three ($25,000 each year) of the three year plan are place holders.

“I’m hoping to gain some information in the coming week,” she said about how to move forward with reducing fire danger in the city’s watershed. She is going to tour the area with Councilor Arvid Andersen who is a forester by profession, to learn more about ways to accomplish such a project.

See more in the March 29, 2017 issue of the Baker City Herald.