The largest project the Snyderville Basin Recreation District is planning to undertake next year comes with a $6.7 million price tag. That’s significantly more than Director Dana Jones said was originally planned for a new park in the Trailside neighborhood.
“Well, part of it is everything's more expensive than it was a couple years ago,” Jones said. “... We're putting two very flat things on a bit of a sloped property, so we are having to have some retaining walls between the fields and at the end of the field. So that turned out that they are moving a lot more dirt than we had originally thought just by taking a look at it.”
The plans call for two full-size fields, parking, restrooms, shade structures and a path that winds its way behind the fields for students to access the nearby elementary school. The district recently received millions in funding from recreation, arts and parks or RAP tax grants, $1.1 million of which was earmarked for this project.
Jones said using turf for the fields would allow them to be functional later in the season. She expects the park will be built by late next summer. The district purchased the land, which is across from Trailside Park and adjacent to the school, for $4 million in 2019.
The Summit County Council approved Basin Rec’s budget last week. It includes a proposal to increase membership costs at the Fieldhouse at Kimball Junction. Jones said prices are going up, but a month-long sale in January will offer annual memberships for lower prices than before.
The district has also earmarked $90,000 to update exercise equipment, Jones said, some of which dates back a decade or more.
“With the amount of people we get in there, it’s easily showing its age — we’ll just say that,” Jones said.
Ben Castro, the chair of the district’s administrative control board, suggested another project to highlight — expanding parking near the East Canyon trailhead north of Interstate 80. He said it was part of the district’s effort to reduce congestion on trails by enticing trail users to visit areas that aren’t normally busy.
Castro said the 25-spot parking lot at the trailhead to the Discovery trails near Summit Park also fits that mission.
Jones said for the Discovery trails, leave the cross-country skis at home in favor of snowshoes or a fat-tire bike. The district even bought a machine to groom the singletrack trails.
“There’s some really cool trails there, and a number of people had been using them even before the parking lot was open,” she said.
Other earmarks in the capital fund include $4.1 million to purchase land if it becomes available and $1.3 million to develop trail systems. The millions to buy land are a placeholder, officials said, and not planned for any particular land purchase. The district’s budget presentation says the trail system money is contingent on a master plan being created for those trails.
According to the budget presentation, the district has a $17.5 million capital fund balance at the end of 2021. After next year’s projects, the district is proposing to retain a nearly $5 million balance in that fund.
