More Top Picks Baby Crib
player ready...Park and Riverwalk officials have decided to put the planned dredging of Depot Pond on hold until planners can come up with more funds to do the work.
Batavia Park District Director Ralph Voris said bids for the project, which also involved retaining walls along the shoreline, exceeded the proposed budget of $350,000.
“The bids were certainly good, reasonable numbers,” Voris said. “Unfortunately, it was more than we knew we could take on at the time.”
The projects as proposed would have involved the city, the Park District and the Citizens Riverwalk Committee, which is building a $3.5 million park on the North Island Peninsula downtown.
The Park District owns the pond, an offshoot of the Fox River, but the city offered to pay for the dredging and shoreline work using its tax increment financing ability.
Riverwalk organizers say up to 4 feet of sludge needs to be dredged from the pond’s bottom to make it useful for recreation, and the shoreline work was planned in conjunction with the construction of a riverside community center.
Voris said the Park District will search for grants to help pay for the work and may have to sponsor a voter referendum question to raise the funds.
“There are answers out there,” he said. “It’s just a matter of pursuing them.”