Ches. Beach continues to focus on youth

Friday, Oct. 1, 2010

When Chesapeake Beach Mayor Bruce Wahl was running for election two years ago he said he wanted to focus on improving recreational facilities for youth and he has been working to keep his promise.

After years of neglect, both the baseball and football fields at Kellams Field are now in playing order and, for younger children, the Tot Lot has been renovated with some new equipment as well.

At the Chesapeake Beach Town Council meeting on Sept. 16, talk about continuing to improve the town's recreational facilities was met with approval from both the mayor and council.

Paul Woodburn, town engineer, said Phase III of Kellams Field reconstruction has begun and this past week bleachers and goal posts were installed, and the scoreboard is also ready to go up. The fencing has been ordered and the council unanimously agreed to ratify the fencing construction, adding nearly an additional $29,000 to the contract.

"We should be powered up opening day," Woodburn said of the electronic scoreboard for Beach Buccaneers opening day football games on Oct. 2.

Water park upgrades continue

The town's Department of Public Works will continue upgrading the water park during its down season and general manager Marilyn VanWagner created a list of priorities that includes resurfacing the pool's bottom, repairing a leak in the well house and replacing worn out ropes.

Councilmember Stewart Cumbo, who is on the Chesapeake Beach Water Park committee, said the committee has been working with a designer to create an initial drawing for the layout of the water park's new kitchen facility, and making a list of equipment that will need to be purchased.

"We know that this whole project needs to be done before opening next year," Cumbo said at last month's council meeting.

Skateboard park designs coming in

Councilmember Bob Carpenter gave a skateboard park planning update at the meeting saying 40 letters were sent to skateboard park designers requesting designs, and there have been several responses.

"We're very encouraged, there's a great deal of interest," he said.

Projects in progress reported at meeting

The Chesapeake Village water tower project should be completed before December and contractors have started painting.

"Tower's erected, steels up," Woodburn said, adding, "We're getting close."

The Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail is well under way with several piles driven and framing complete on the most western channel crossing. Paving on the land section started in September, the engineer's report states.

A traffic calming plan for Richfield Station was awarded to V&V Construction of Bowie and construction is scheduled to begin in October.

Specifications for Phase II of the B Street Boardwalk replacement project have been prepared and will be going out to bid in the coming weeks.

The SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) contract, awarded to Mackey Electrical Services Inc. of Huntingtown, which began in January to set up 13 pumping stations throughout the town and to report data, is nearing completion.

All wet wells are online and data are being collected, with two rain gauges added to the system, the report states. Flow meters, which also are being installed as part of the contract, will monitor water levels of each wet well and when the water level reaches a certain point the pumps will turn on and water will be pumped downstream, ending up at a wastewater treatment plant.

charvat@somdnews.com