Sedalia Park Board Set to Approve RFQ for Aquatic Facility, Bowling Alley Designs

Sedalia Parks & Rec officials have been interviewing architectural design teams and will be making a final decision soon on who to hire to design the new bowling alley and aquatic facility coming to town.

According to Parks & Rec Director Amy Epple, the firms have been narrowed down to three choices after sending out a Request For Qualifications, or RFQ, on the massive project.

The process of designing the two facilities involves a team of professionals, Epple noted.

In addition to the main architect, there is the interior designer, the environmental engineer, the aquatic engineer, the Geotech advisor, and other individuals who make up the design team, Epple explained.

“So their team comes in, they give their spiel, and you get a feel for which team you feel will be the best match, to give you the design that you want,” Epple said Thursday night.

Epple and her staff went through the same process when the Heckart Community Center was being designed and ultimately built a few years ago.

“So when a design team comes, you’re paying them a percentage of what your project costs, if that makes sense,” Epple told KSIS.

“All Realtors are paid the same, really, but you’re interviewing to see which one works best for you,” she said, adding that a sketch, or conceptual drawings will be produced first before working on the actual construction document.

Epple noted that the design firms are being asked what can be done with the rest of the property in the future, noting that there is $11 million in the budget for the project -- $3 million for the bowling alley and $8 million for the aquatic facility.

She also noted that it was a good idea to share space when it comes to parking between the two facilities as well as concessions.

“We want to try and stretch that as far as we can, but then where are the opportunities in the long run for us to do some other things as well?” Epple said.

She noted that the bowling alley will be completed and open for business first.

A ground-breaking will take place in late spring or early summer, with construction completed and grand opening in the fall of 2026.

A special session has been scheduled for the Park Board to meet Monday at 2:40 p.m., to approve the aquatic facility and bowling alley RFQ. The public is invited to attend.

Also during the 28-minute meeting, Park Board members heard a Polar Express update.

The Polar Express train is being painted now, and 3 to 4 staffers will be needed to run the operation.

According to Epple, Polar Express tickets sold out in a mere five minutes. The event is scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 8 from 4 to 7:30 p.m., at Moore’s Train House in Liberty Park.

The Park Board elected a new slate of officers for the coming year Thursday night. No surprise, they are the same as this year, with Jerry Case as president, Roy Poynter as vice president and Megan Simon as secretary.

Epple noted that in the event that the VP is not available, the secretary moves up and serves as VP in that instance.

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On a positive note, tax revenues are currently up 6.1 percent, according to board member Dan Van Dyne. That translates to about $160,000, Epple said during the meeting, but cautioned against celebrating too much, due to the fact that many costs for Parks & Rec have gone up as well, such as insurance and other items.

“So it’s not like I have an extra $160,000, it’s probably already spoken for, and we still have several months to go through, and things come up, things break that we have to fix that wasn’t in the budget, and we had lighting issues at girls softball,” she told KSIS, adding that extra money will go into reserves.

“We do have a master plan and we do know where we’re going, so we can have money to fund different projects,” Epple said of the future of Sedalia Parks & Rec.

Epple is aware of an incident that occurred Thursday morning in which a toddler fell into the Liberty Pond and was rescued by two fishermen, one of whom jumped into the pond and pulled the child out of the pond.

The toddler is fine, Epple said. “We received a lot of phone calls on it.”

It just so happened that a large quantity of trout were stocked there one day earlier and there were several people fishing the pond at the time, including the father of one of Parks & rec’s staff members, Epple noted.

Then the man who jumped into the pond couldn’t get out because the steep slope of the concrete. “Then another fisherman helped him get out,” she recalled. “That was something that could up being very scary, but it ended well.”

In other news, Parks & Rec Superintendent Jeff Coleman has taken a leave of absence for one year while he battles cancer. “He’s the heart of our department and a very knowledgeable guy,” Commented Epple, adding that Coleman has been working for Sedalia and Rec for four years. Prior to that, he worked at Warrensburg Parks & Rec.

“Probably one of the best decisions I’ve made in my career is hiring Jeff to come work for us,” Epple told KSIS. So Coleman is taking a non-paid leave of absence for one year. In the meantime, Matt Clevenger, Assistant Parks Superintendent, has stepped up into Coleman’s role as Interim Superintendent.

Also, Steve Moon, Maintenance and Grounds Supervisor, is retiring, In addition, the Parks & Rec department has seen three new babies born in the last six weeks.

“We have such a good team, this is our family away from home. We all step in and pick up the pieces to help everybody out so they can focus on the things they need to focus,” Epple said.

A Missouri Land and Water Conservation grant was recently submitted by John Simmons, Parks & Rec’s grant facilitator and data analyst. Results of the $500,000 matching grant request will not be known until late February or early March.

The grant money, if approved, will be used to work on Centennial Pool, where construction on a splash pad and pickle ball courts, is planned.

“We’re doing a lot in the Parks Department, (although) we don’t have a lot of extra money coming in. That’s why we hired John (who recently retired from City of Sedalia as community development director) to help us get these grants. “He’s already on it. Now we wait and see … hopefully we get it. John’s been a big asset too, for the new bowling alley. His parents owned the bowling alley in Marshall. So he’s got a lot of knowledge about bowling alleys and everything. So he’s bringing a lot of information and research (to the project), so that we make sure we’re doing the right thing,” Epple said.

Heated bathrooms at Liberty and Centennial Parks remain open throughout the winter, (and closed at night) but all others are winterized and locked up from Nov. 1 through the end of March, Epple noted.

Juvenile vandals at the Liberty Park train station were caught recently.

“We’ve been having some issues with vandalism at the train house. They were finally caught,” Epple said.