In an executive session that lasted another an hour, Parks’ commissioners came out with a vote to hire Sam Dudley as Executive Director in a vote that landed 4-2 with commissioners Mariellen Griffith and Sue Hubbard both voting No.
Afterwards, commissioners began to discuss progress at Crescent Spring. Interim-Director Steven Dickie explained that progress was being made along the wall and the bench had been installed. He also said that with the amount of overburden there is on the wall, due to how steep the hill is, there were options proposed by Stacy’s Stoneworks on how to proceed.
One option would be to terrace the upper levels of the hillside with an additional mortared wall to help distribute some of that overburden between the two constructions and filter runoff so it doesn’t push against a singular structure all at once. Costs for the additional wall would be $13,900. The extra wall would also allow for extra garden space.
Another option would be to entirely remove the dirt on the hillside which would remove the burden on the wall below. Dickie pointed out that because of not knowing how the stone underneath the soil, it may end up not being appealing to see.
The final option would be to leave the wall as is, which is better engineered than the previous wall and hope that it holds as a long-term solution.
Commissioners took time to allow Dickie to show them a diagram of the hillside and where overburden near the Carnegie Library pushes against the newly constructed wall, though they said they were not ready to jump into another commitment of funds. Commissioners noted that due to the need to remove a tree on the hillside for the wall and issues with installing proper drainage the project had already run over budget and thus wished to hear from Stacy’s Stoneworks at a workshop to further discuss their options.
Other Items
- In discussing Independence Day, commissioners were given an overview of initial plans for the event including how the event may be separated between the free fireworks event and a ticketed portion that could include live music. They also discussed where staging for music could be included at the far end of Mulladay Hollow and that the Parks Department had begun discussions with other city departments on how to manage the event.
- Dickie told commissioners that work on the Lake Leatherwood Dam Emergency Action Plan was underway. The Plan is part of annual emergency exercises that the department performs with other local emergency response crews. These mixture of tabletop and live exercises will help crews become more intimate with the layout of LLCP and assist in lowering response times in the event of an emergency.
- Mariellen Griffith and Sue Hubbard both put in their resignations as commissioners of Parks after the meeting.