De Soto’s Thomas Street Basketball Court soon will get a makeover.
The City Council voted 4-0 on Jan. 21 to award a $230,920 contract to Kimes Contracting of Hillsboro to renovate the basketball court. Councilman Todd Mahn was absent from the meeting.
“(The project) will hopefully start in the next couple of weeks, and depending on the weather, the goal is to have it completed by late spring,” City Manager Todd Melkus said Monday.
He said the basketball court renovation is the only park project budgeted this year, and it will be funded with revenue from the city’s park and stormwater tax.
Melkus said the project will involve excavating and removing the entire court and fencing around it and then replacing it.
“They’re actually going to be lowering the court’s elevation a little bit to hopefully create better parking in the front,” he said.
Melkus said the current asphalt surface is beyond repair.
“We debated the option of repairing the current surface, but it would’ve required milling of a substantial amount and a fresh overlay and still would’ve left us with a less-than-ideal base, so it would’ve just continued to be an issue in the future,” he said.
Melkus said city officials decided to address a problem with a waterline at the site, which is why the project came in about 12 percent above budget.
“There is also a waterline that runs in between the court and the pickleball courts,” he said. “We’re going to be adjusting that to where if anything happens to it in the future, we can access it and not have to dig into the court,” Melkus told the council. “That’s an additional part of the bid.”
Kimes Contracting submitted the lowest of three bids for the project. The other bidders included Spencer Contracting of Arnold at $256,128, Jokerst Contracting of Festus at $248,885.60 and R.V. Wagner of St. Louis for $334,010.
Six new pickleball courts were built last spring next to the basketball court at a cost of $408,000. Those improvements also were funded with revenue from the city’s park and stormwater tax.
At the May 10 unveiling of the pickleball courts, the council announced the park facility at Thomas Street and Rock Road had been renamed Melkus Park to honor the city manager’s commitment to parks.
Also at the Jan. 21 meeting, the council awarded a $744,000 contract to Fab Tech Wastewater Solutions LLC of Weldon Spring for a clarifier replacement project at the wastewater plant. In addition, it agreed to pay Utiliworx of Blackwell $74,900 to upgrade the booster house for a well at Thomas and Rock Road. Both projects had been included in this fiscal year’s budget.