Monument Lake will be getting a new restroom facility and Limbach Park will be getting an upgrade to its playground equipment.

The Town of Monument Council had its regular meeting Feb. 5 at town hall where it reviewed two resolutions which would upgrade some of the amenities at Monument Lake as well as Limbach Park, although the totality of the Limbach Park project is still being decided.

Director of parks and community partnerships Madeline VanDenHoek presented a resolution to the council which authorizes a contract with CXT to construct a restroom facility at Monument Lake. Presently, the lake is served by portable restrooms of which, in the summertime especially, become full and difficult to maintain, VanDenHoek said.

The town already has a water tap with the Palmer Lake Sanitation District, so precast concrete flushroom facility would be a more permanent, sanitary solution and a better amenity for the lake, she said.

The town applied for a grant last year from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife of which it was awarded $117,731 which would cover the majority of the new facility.

“We did budget for the rest of this project and these funds are in our 2024 budget,” VanDenHoek said.

The water tap from Palmer Lake Sanitation District was provided when it was installing a new sewer line and had to take down one of the lake’s pavilions. In return, it gave the town the water tap of which Monument did not have to pay a tap fee. The cost of the water line to the new flushroom facility would be funded by the $83,000 in the parks budget dedicated towards the project.

VanDenHoek said the new facility should be built just north of the pavilion, next to which the present portable restrooms are placed. The resolution and subsequent contract was approved 7-0.

Another resolution presented to the council by VanDenHoek on behalf of the parks department was to authorize a contract with Star Playgrounds for new equipment at Limbach Park.

Previously, the council had appointed $200,000 to the parks department to help it install new playground equipment, and VanDenHoek said since Limbach Park is the most used park in the town, it would be the best place to get started on upgrades. However, the parks budget recently ended up with additional funds to put towards the project.

“$200,000 kind of doesn’t go far,” VanDenHoek said. “We have some playground surfacing and two pieces of equipment that we’re going to be able to purchase with that.”

The parks director later asked to discuss the possibility of using an additional $200,000 left over in the department’s budget from a purchase of property west of town hall which was supposed to happen in 2024. Since the closing of the sale had to be moved up to last December, the remaining funds from the transaction are still available in the parks budget.

“I feel like we could make our playground a little bit bigger and buy some additional playground equipment with those funds, should the council decide that is a good use of those funds,” VanDenHoek said.

Rather than spread the funds around to other parks in town, town manager Mike Foreman said VanDenHoek and town staff are working on Limbach Park meets the town’s requirements for Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency (CIRSA) as well as Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.

“I think if we’re going to invest a lot of money, we need to invest that in [Limbach] to ensure the next time we get an audit by CIRSA, we meet that audit,” Foremans said.

Council voted to continue the resolution to its Feb. 20 meeting to give VanDenHoek a chance to create a plan with the vendor for use of both the appropriated funds, as well as the funds which had recently become available.

The parks director said construction timeline on Limbach Park is anticipated to be late September after the summer events season for the park and assuming weather and temperatures permit.

Limbach Park, during Monument’s downtown July 4th festivities.

Michelle Karas, The Tribune