Greeley Tribune recently issued the following announcement.
Greeley City Council agreed to make changes to Bittersweet Park at its Tuesday work session, agreeing to convert the areas surrounding the Weld County Veterans and Fallen Officers memorials back to bluegrass.
The areas in question account for about 5.6 acres, stretching beyond the memorials along 35th Avenue, and will allow the city to keep the existing irrigation system.
Natural grass will stay on the park’s remaining 15.4 acres.
The renovation is expected to cost about $60,000 per acre, or about $336,000, with an additional $8,100 per year for ongoing maintenance.
“A lot of what we do if we’re successful is about compromise,” said Mayor John Gates.
Bittersweet Park, and the natural grasses planted in it, have been a point of contention since the conversion from bluegrass to natural grasses.
The changes, initially proposed in 2018, argued that the move would save Greeley about 7 gallons of water per square foot per year.
The improvements also sought to replace a 30-year-old leaking irrigation system and the construction of a new soft-surface trail.
At the time, the city didn’t receive much push back.
But then folks saw the grass.
While city staff warned it would take the native grasses three to five growing seasons to take root, many folks balked at the eyesore.
“I don’t have words to explain the shock value when we first saw how Bittersweet Park looked with natural grass,” Gates said.
Gates said he can’t remember ever saying he wasn’t well-briefed on something during his 13 years on city council, but that the Bittersweet Park situation called for it.
“We were not very well-briefed with what would happen at the park,” he said. “When I saw it, I was shocked.”
City councilmember Johnny Olson even called Bittersweet Park the “No. 1 issue” of his 2021 campaign.
Though there has undoubtedly been push back on the appearance of the grass, there has also been significant support.
The city held community input sessions the city held in partnership with the Communication and Engagement Department to get a better sense of what folks wanted for the area. In this process, the city:
- Held two pop-up events at Bittersweet Park;
- Heard from 1,358 survey respondents;
- Received 4,000 write-in comments;
- Received 29 paper surveys;
- Collected 270 social media comments;
- Received more than 20 emails.
“It gives me heartburn because we did so much outreach at the beginning when we transitioned,” said city councilmember Deborah DeBoutez. “We’re kind of going backwards.”
Why not just have bluegrass around the memorials, not also stretching out along 35th Avenue?
That would require the city to redesign the irrigation system, which would create extra expenses.
“This option doesn’t increase the bluegrass footprint considerably and gives us a good stopping point to not have to impact the irrigation,” said Eric Bloomer, Parks Superintendent.
Original source can be found here.
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