A Weekly Note from Mayor Gary L. Graham
“Traditional Values, Progressive Thinking”
The City of O’Fallon held a ground breaking ceremony on Monday, May 15, 2006 for the new Family Community Park project. The new park will cover 200 acres and will be built in four phases over a period of 10-20 years.
This new park is a critical part of our growing park system and it will benefit generations of O’Fallon residents in the future as well as bring enormous immediate impact to our community.
The $9 million Phase I development of the park includes four multi-purpose baseball/softball fields, pavilions, a playground, walking trail, and a road going through the property. Also included in Phase I is the grading and seeding of the entire 200 acres. Phase I is expected to be completed in approximately 15 months and the fields ready to use by the fall 2007.
Future construction phases of the park will include eight baseball and softball diamonds; ten multi-purpose fields; a five-acre lake; many court sports; a three mile multi-purpose trail system; an outdoor amphitheatre; numerous pavilions and playgrounds; a recplex including indoor and outdoor swimming pools; gyms; a banquet room; preschool and programming classrooms; a fine arts center; a theatre; a cardio and fitness area; an indoor track; an instructional kitchen, as well as other amenities.
Funding for the park includes a $750,000 LWCF federal grant and a $100,000 MEPRD local grant for land purchase, a $400,000 OSLAD state grant for development, an $8.5 million bond issue, and portions of the gas and electric utility tax, telephone tax, and hotel/motel tax.
The new Family Community Park will be a tremendous asset for our community and will provide top notch recreational facilities for our current residents as well as for future generations. The strong working relationship between City Hall and the residents we serve is yet another example of why O’Fallon is such a great community in which to live.
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