The Vacaville City Council rejected three bids for a project to modernize Trower Park, one of six neighborhood parks slated for modernization as part of the city’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan.

The city administration recommended that the council reject the bids because none of them were within the city’s budget for the project. After the decision, the project will be re-bid. The park on Markham Avenue would have been themed and featured community art, including murals and decorative tiles.

The improvements would have included a zip line, a nebulizer, playground attractions, a hill slide and accessible swings. Council member Mike Silva had previously advocated for the project to be completed and asked in previous meetings that the item be brought back to the council in a timely manner. Challenges during planning included efforts to minimize the use of retaining walls and issues with making the park ADA compliant given the slope of the site.

Improvements valued at $1.8 million were originally approved for 2021, but the City increased that amount by $7,000,000 in 2022, $98,120 in 2023, and $684,500 in 2024. The lowest bid the City received was ultimately $600,000 above the engineers’ estimate of $2.23 million.

Alternatives presented to the City Council by staff include deciding not to move forward with the project because it does not meet the City’s strategic goals or accepting the lowest bid.

The project will be re-tendered in November and December of this year, with bids being submitted in January. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring, as soon as weather permits.

Silva asked staff how to explain to people why they hadn’t submitted bids sooner. Staff said the cost of the park could be reduced by designing it differently, because there would be fewer retaining walls and it would be easier to level the ADA paths.

“One of the more global concerns is that we essentially had six parks redesigned at the same time,” said Brian McLean, public works director. “All six of those parks were brought online in terms of their project status during COVID-19.”

Supply chain and financing issues, as well as a lack of funding, slowed the progress of these projects, he said. In the last year, the department has started to complete more of these projects. Architects and engineers must meet with the city on site before bidding, he said, but that doesn’t negate the construction issues that must be considered given the number of amenities and topography.

“The topography of this particular area is challenging,” McLean said, “and we wanted to avoid at all costs creating accessibility issues throughout the park, places that are difficult or impossible for people to access.”