MOORESVILLE — Plans are beginning to change a bit for the updates at Pioneer Park in Mooresville after initial estimates for the project came in at more than $9 million.

During the May 13 meeting of the Mooresville Park Board, park superintendent Phil Cornelius explained some of the changes to the project.

“At the beginning of the year, we went into the build-operate-transfer (BOT) process,” Cornelius said. “With that, (we) brought on Meyer Najem as the construction firm with certified estimators to try to get to a concrete price of what we received.”

Cornelius said it was somewhat expected that the initial price tag would come in higher than expected.

“We have now refined that process down to a more conservative number,” he added. “It’s still a little over our scale of what we believed, but we think with a little more fine-toothed combs and sharpen our pencils and pens, we can get to the number that is equitable for both.”

Under the initial plans, the park would have needed two stormwater management systems.

After reviewing the plans, much of the new structures have been moved around so that there would only be a need for one stormwater system.

The park also shifted the proposed pickleball courts and removed the proposed basketball courts.

“We currently already have two basketball courts in this park,” Cornelius said. “So we saw that as a system that could be added later, or in the future, but our primary focus would be pickleball.”

The pickleball court has been moved closer to the park’s current maintenance building, reduced some of the proposed parking and shifted the future maintenance facility to the north along County Line Road.

Park board member Brent Callahan said he would like to activate the board’s building committee to review the updated plans.

Callahan said he has concerns about the initial estimate for the project.

Cornelius told the board that the initial estimate for the project was more than $9 million.

“We have now scaled that closer to $6 (million),” Cornelius said. “So we have already done a cut of close to $3 million worth of investment, and that’s solely into a lot of the ground infrastructure.”

“I would like to see the building committee look at it all and see if we still want to stay within the BOT, or whether we want to do some of these projects separately without that,” Callahan said.

Callahan added he’d like to see a survey with a topographical map and what is going into the buildings as examples of what he’s wanting the board’s building committee to review.

“I’m having trouble at the present time imagining that they can still come down far enough to meet our existing funding,” Callahan said.

Cornelius responded that the parks initially estimated the project would cost about $5 million, and the project is currently within about $1.5 million of that funding.

Board member Danny Shaw asked if there are any available funds in case the project can’t be further reduced.

“We’re actively seeking all grant applications,” Cornelius said. “I filled out an application, actually, this evening that would bring a few hundred thousand dollars into the project, if awarded.”

The board voted unanimously to have its building committee review the project and cost estimate of the work.

~ By Lance Gideon | Reporter | Published May 23, 2024 in The Morgan County Correspondent