The Homewood-Flossmoor Park District accepted a bid for the redesign of Homewood Estates Park, and received a $70,000 gift from the Rotary Foundation Board to help with expenses to redevelop two ball fields and a soccer field there.
The gift is in addition to a $292,700 Open Space Land and Development (OSLAD) grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The park district’s share on the project will be $224,700.
The park board has been working on plans for the park redesign since 2019. The plans call for new walking paths around the park, an upgraded youth soccer field, a new shelter that would replace the portable tent, new playground equipment and a redesign making three baseball fields into two. A “Rotary Fields” sign will be installed at the ball fields acknowledging Rotary’s gift.
The park district hired Upland Design Ltd. to design and oversee work at the park at 18200 California Ave. in Homewood. The firm has been assisting the park district with plans, drawings and work on the OSLAD grant application.
Park commissioners thanked park district Executive Director Debbie Kopas for working to finalize the Rotary gift that had been on hold during the pandemic.
The board accepted a contract from D&J Landscaping for $378,952.74 for work at the park. The firm will handle all site work, grading, asphalt work, new playground equipment and installing the shelter.
When the bids were received, the commissioners were pleasantly surprised to learn the D&J Landscaping bid was about $50,000 under budget. Kopas said about $25,000 of that will be used to add electrical power at the shelter.