CIRCLEVILLE – Circleville service department gave the Council an update to the Ted Lewis Project after getting funding to move faster on the park project.
Circleville’s Ted Lewis has been in construction now for several years, slowly moving forward due to the limitation on yearly funding from a levy passed a few years ago. That’s when Councilman Todd Brady pushed for funding sooner to finish the park quicker.
Councilman Brady says that most of the reason for the slow progress on Ted Lewis has to do with the funding. The Levy creates around a million dollars a year so Ted Lewis park is set to build in phases keeping within that budget. The issue that it was slowing down construction.
Todd Brady approached Circleville city auditor Gayle Spangler in 2020 about a possible loan, and that’s when Spangler suggested borrowing a note and then when the project is done to roll the cost into a 20-year debt. Interest on this type of way to borrow money would be low at around .5%, but according to Brady,
that cheap interest rate may not last forever.
Brady says that he has experience with construction and engineering and he knows that costs for construction will go up and the percentage rate of this loan won’t be low forever. He believes that Circleville would save money by going this route, and we could finish Ted Lewis in less time. To him, it was a win-win.
After the council passed the ordinance to get the note that geared up construction to Ted Lewis now city officials are expecting bids for the next phases of construction in the next month.
A splash pad much like the Mary Virginia Park is planned to be done by the end of the year as one of the amenities, also a playground, and a possible zip line. Watch below as the city of Circleville administration talks about it.
More on whats going in Ted Lewis here: http://www.sciotopost.com/circleville-city-talks-ted-lewis-improvements-2020/
