CONCORD — The public will soon have a chance to weigh in on the proposed $60 million general obligation (GO) bond that the Concord City Council plans to have on the November ballot.
As part of the GO bond process, the council set a public hearing to discuss the bond. The public will be able to speak their piece at the council’s June 9 meeting.
The GO bond is set to be a maximum of $60 million dollars and will cover the costs of the city’s park projects, including athletic fields, shelters, parking, lighting, trails and greenways, and renovations and improvements. The council has approved several plans and designs for parks over the past two years, and there are several parks that need updating.
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Those approved plans include the J.E. “Jim” Ramseur Park, the first park in the Northwest area of the city, but in order to economize, the council opted to remove the recreation center for Jim Ramseur Park from the park’s first phase and made changes to the construction phases of the W.W. Flowe Park.
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There was some debate at a February council meeting about setting the bond limit. The limit started around $100 million and was ultimately negotiated between council members to the $60 million. If the city does not go forward with a GO bond, city officials said Concord will be several years to potentially a decade out before any funds will be available for the new park projects.
The council also teed up two renovation projects at its May meeting for parks that will be covered by the bond.
The first project was a $468,128 contract for renovation designs of Dorton Park. The council adopted the new master plan for the renovation and redevelopment of Dorton Park in September 2020. The designs also include renovations for a segment of Coddle Creek Greenway. The full multi-million dollar Dorton Park project will be covered by the GO bond.
The second project is for renovation and redevelopment designs of the Hartsell Park Complex, which includes the existing park with parking areas, the Hartsell Recreation Center, Hartsell Ballfield Complex, and Hartsell neighborhood park. The contract for the designs is set at $532,155. The masterplan for the park was adopted in December 2021, and the full construction budget for Hartsell Park is $6.8 million and is expected to be fully funded by the bond.
Since the process to put a GO bond on the ballot was kicked off by council earlier this year, the city has gone through several steps to put the referendum in place. The city put up a public notice and then sent in an application for the referendum to the Local Government Commission the first week in May.
Once the public hearing is held in June, the council will take actions to adopt the bond order and set a special bond referendum. After that, the bond referendum will be on the November ballot for consideration.
The public hearing will be held June 9 in the City Hall’s Council Chambers located at 35 Cabarrus Avenue West.
