Modesto considers playground for seniors

The Modesto City Council on Tuesday will consider approving a contract for as much as $60,005 with O’Dell Engineering for services related to converting the roughly one-third-acre city park in front of the Ralston Tower senior complex into a senior playground.

The contract calls for Modesto-based O’Dell to develop a master plan, design development report and construction documents, essentially taking the project to the stage where the city could put it out to bid and hire a construction firm, according to a city report. O’Dell would seek input from the community as it develops its plans and hold two public workshops to help fine-tune its work.

The $60,005 would come from funding the city receives through the federal Community Development Block Grant program. A city report says the city’s general fund will not be used for this project. The general fund pays primarily for public safety services.

Modesto picked O’Dell among five firms that competed for the contract. The project received rave reviews from seniors and senior groups when the city announced its plans in December 2014.

City officials said at that time Modesto had set aside $150,000 in CDBG funding for the playground. The website Senior Planet says these playgrounds are among the new trends in fitness and “feature low-impact exercise equipment designed to promote flexibility, balance and coordination, along with areas that promote community.”

Some Ralston Tower residents in December 2014 raised concerns about the homeless who use the park. They said the homeless can get loud and rowdy, ask for food and spare change, and leave behind trash and litter. City officials said then that providing positive uses for parks and recreation facilities tends to drive out less desirable uses.

In other action, the council is expected to:

▪  Enter into an agreement with the Southern California-based nonprofit Shane’s Inspiration to have it provide design and other services at no cost for what is called an inclusive playground at Beyer Community Park. These playgrounds can be used by children of all abilities. A group of residents approached the city about the playground. The project would be done through the city’s Park Partners Program, in which city staff helps organize and manage a project but community members secure donations.

▪  Consider spending $404,209 for mobile data computers for the Police Department. The city would buy the computers from Dell Marketing, which the city selected through a competitive process. A city report states the current computers are using Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system, which Microsoft stopped supporting in April 2014. The report states the warranty for the current computers is close to ending. The money for the purchase would come from the fleet replacement fund ($387,777) and the general fund ($16,432).

▪  Consider hiring Walnut Creek-based Carollo Engineers for final design services for the river trunk realignment project at as much as $4.7 million. The city hired Carollo for preliminary design services in April 2014 for $1 million, according to a city report. The river trunk is a pipeline that transports sewage from the Beard Industrial Park to the city’s Sutter Avenue waste-water treatment plant. The project includes other components and improvements.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St. The council will hold a workshop in room B300 after its meeting to discuss the audit from the city’s 2014-15 fiscal year, which ended June 30, and get an update on the current 2015-16 fiscal year.

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Modesto considers playground for seniors."