Alamosa Parks & Recreation Director Andy Rice describes changes to the Montana Azul Park design during a meeting Monday evening in the Tierra Nueva Apartments Community Room./Courier photo by Ruth Heide

ALAMOSA — A new park in a growing subdivision of Alamosa has been delayed but is still on track for construction, Alamosa Parks & Recreation Director Andy Rice said during a Monday evening community meeting in the Montana Azul Subdivision.

Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) funded the Montana Azul Park, rating it #1 out of more than 50 projects in 2017, Rice said. “They saw the value in bringing a park to a portion of Alamosa that really needed it,” he said.

He added that construction was anticipated in the spring of this year, but a closer look at the design resulted in changes that delayed the project until next spring.

Rice explained that initially the Montana Azul Park was designed to serve a dual purpose as a park and storm drainage area, with a portion of the park on top of detention ponds where water would collect and evaporate. The belief was that the water would evaporate in a couple of days.

However, when the city asked Reynolds Engineering to analyze the evaporation and dissipation rates, the firm found that any above average precipitation would put the park under water for at least a month or so.

Alamosa Public Works Director Mark Wright added that a 100-year event (the potential for that occurring being 1 percent every year) would take 86 days to evaporate.

“Even in an above average year it would be a few weeks under water,” Rice said, “not a couple of days like we hoped.”

With that knowledge, the city went back to the drawing board to redesign the park to accommodate storm water drainage (in an open area that will utilize native vegetation) apart from park amenities, which will still include such features as a soccer field, trails and 24-foot gazebo that can be used for group events. The park will include adaptive oriented elements for those with disabilities.

Some of the features had to be moved around somewhat, Rice explained. For example, the bathrooms were moved closer to Foster Avenue.

Rice added that the city received $94,000 from the Colorado Health Foundation to build a playground on the other side of the street, and that is still in the works for 2019. The playground is the only portion of the park funded for that side of the street, and the city will seek funding to complete that phase, Rice explained.

He said the first phase, which was delayed this year, would likely begin construction in March or April.

Wright added, “When it makes sense for us to push around the dirt, we will push around the dirt.”

Wright explained that the project would be completed partially by city crews and partially by contractors. Rice said the city parks crew would also be involved, for example planting the vegetation for the soccer field, which will entail low-water, playable vegetation.

San Luis Valley Farm Worker Housing Corp. Director Raymond Hurtado, who manages the Tierra Nueva Apartments near the new park site, said, “I am excited. The kids are excited.”