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Independence supervisors award park contract

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Independence Township supervisors Monday awarded a $6,789 contract to a Smith Township builder as part of ongoing plans for a 39-acre park in the township.

The work Alex Paris Contracting Co. will perform includes measures for erosion and sendimentation control, bulk grading and seeding on the east side of Wylie Avenue in Avella.

The work supervisors approved is part of ongoing plans to build a $3 million Independence Township Community Park.

Officials plan to use private donations, Act 13 impact fees, state grant money and local share account funds to finance most of the work.

“This is the initial phase, the startup phase,” said supervisors Chairman Tom Jennings.

Paris was awarded a $198,800 project in November for work on the west side of Wylie, which includes erosion control, grading, stormwater piping, a parking lot, sidewalk and a concrete pad where officials have proposed eventually building a pavilion during a later stage of the work, said Jim Pashek, a Pittsburgh landscape architect advising the township on the park plans.

Work on both sides is expected to go on through the summer. It hasn’t begun yet.

“The irony is the warm weather is actually a detractor for this phase of the work,” said Pashek.

Pashek said the work supervisors approved Monday would likely have cost $55,000 or $60,000 without Paris’ offer to perform some of it for free.

His was the lowest of four bids Jennings said the township received.

“He volunteered a year or so ago to donate all of the grading on both the east and the west side,” Pashek said.

Two more pavilions, an ice rink and a small playground are proposed for the east side.

Pashek said officials hope to open the park late this year or early next year.

Jennings and Pasek said the timeline for longer-term plans for the park – which also include a sledding hill, additional trails and other amenities – depends on the township securing additional funding, but Pashek said he’s been impressed so far with what the township has been able to pull together from outside sources.

“Between all of these moving parts, they’ve put together a very effective funding package,” he said.

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