Bridgeport City Council approves downtown park conceptual plan

Wise County Messenger
By Brendan Marchand 
June 28, 2023

The Bridgeport City Council unanimously approved the conceptual plan of the downtown park at 1102 Halsell Street at a meeting Monday. The design was presented by Ashley Lewis of engineering firm Dunaway and Associates, and Bridgeport Director of Parks and Recreation Chris Heasley.

“We’ve been trying to get this park for six years, and I absolutely love the design,” Bridgeport Mayor Randy Singleton said. “It’s going to be fantastic – it’s really going to change downtown.”

CITY OF BRIDGEPORT

Key features of the conceptual design include:

• Performance pavilion
• Artificial turf event lawn
• Shade structure with porch swings and rocking chairs
• Stagecoach plaza
• Bridge entry on Halsell with bridge truss accent
• Railroad pavement
• Festoon lighting
• Seating groves
• Limestone benches
• Movable furniture
• Head-in parking

The park design also includes a dedicated location for a Christmas tree at the bridge entry on the north side of the park.

“We sent this [conceptual design] to the parks board, main street board, the committee that helped decide this would be a city park and the people that helped us select Dunaway, and the feedback we got overall was very, very positive,” said Heasley. “There were several questions about food trucks … The plan would be to put electricity in front of the west parking spots, so that when we add events that need food trucks we have the ability.”

Heasley said that after city council approval, the next step is for Dunaway to begin working on 3D renderings of the park, and for the city to begin displaying them for the public. He also added that as part of the city’s agreement with Dunaway, the engineering firm will provide a virtual reality demonstration of the park for citizens to view.

“By the 150th anniversary in October, we will actually have virtual reality goggles where you can put them on and be standing in the park looking at the 3D renderings,” Heasley said. “It will be a complete 360-degree view of the park,” Lewis added.

After 3D renderings are provided and approved, and following Dunaway’s budget presentation, the council will be provided with a comprehensive list of construction plans for the downtown park. Heasley added that suggested names for the park will be given to the council in August or September.

In other business, the council approved city staff to bid out nine sections of streets that were identified for repair in the 2022/23 fiscal year. Bridgeport City Manager Mike Murray noted that the street improvements are part of finalizing the 2020 capital improvements projects.

11th Street, Greathouse Street, 15th Street, Hovey Street, Johns Drive, Grace Street, First Avenue and Frost Street were all identified as either in “serious” or “very poor” condition in a street analysis by NEXCO Highway Solutions of America Inc.

“We’ve already done six streets over on the west side of town, and these nine just make the most sense to pave and repair at this time,” said Murray. “Preliminary budget and bidding is about $725,000, but we have to bid it to find out exactly what it will be.”

Council member Austin Ince asked Murray the approximate start time for the street repairs, to which Murray said possibly within the next two or three months. Ince noted that he had some concern about repairs to 15th Street happening during the school year because of its relation to nearby school facilities and the Senior Care Center.

“To me, if that can’t be done during the summer, I don’t know if that needs to be a Christmas project or something like that,” Ince added. “In all of the other areas, I think that they can break it up so as to not inconvenience the people living there.”

Murray said that no new engineering will need to be conducted on the streets because the repairs are only overlay projects.