Miller-Showers Park roundup: Gateway redesign, cold water rescue training, dredging, hawks, herons

It’s just a nine-acre wedge, nestled between College Avenue and Walnut Street, north of 17th Street.

But over the last couple of days, Bloomington’s Miller-Showers Park has been the center of city government focus from more than one angle.

On Sunday morning at the park, the fire department conducted training for cold water rescues.

On Tuesday night, the parks department got approval from the board of park commissioners for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with city of Bloomington utilities (CBU)—for the dredging of the park’s detention ponds. The same night, the utilities service board (USB) opened bids for the dredging work.

Also on Tuesday night, the board of park commissioners approved a $42,300 change in the contract with Rundell Ernstberger Associates (REA), which is the design firm for the city gateway that generated so much controversy last year.

A seven-day stretch of overnight low temperatures in the single-digits or below zero—with no daytime highs above the freezing mark—meant that on Sunday, the Miller-Showers Park detention ponds were mostly frozen over, except for a few spots near the spillways.

That made for a good venue for Bloomington fire department’s cold water rescue training, which started around 11 a.m.

The fire department’s total budget for 2024 is $18,080,286. Of that, $3,120,855 is for training.

Among the department’s training goals that are spelled out in the 2024 budget briefing book are 420 hours of annual refresher fire and rescue training for each firefighter. That’s better than National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and Insurance Service Office (ISO) standards, according to the budget materials.

Responding to an emailed question from The B Square, interim Bloomington fire chief Roger Kerr wrote that the cold water rescue training conducted on Sunday could fit either into the 420-hour category or a different category, which requires 16 hours of annual technical rescue training.

The frozen detention ponds where the fire department conducted its training exercises are a part of the city’s stormwater management system on the north side. It is city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) that handles stormwater management. So the maintenance of the park is a collaboration of sorts between CBU and the parks department.

The memorandum of understanding that was approved on Tuesday by the board of park commissioners was about a dredging project for the detention ponds to be done in the first part of this year.

By design, the ponds are meant gradually to fill up with silt—when fine particles settle out in the ponds, it prevents a negative impact on water quality downstream.

Parks and recreation director Tim Street told the board on Tuesday that the accumulation of silt has made the ponds shallow enough that some aquatic plants have begun to thrive there. The designed depth would not have allowed the aquatic vegetation to flourish, he indicated.

It is CBU that will take direct responsibility for the dredging work. Responding to an emailed question from The B Square, CBU communications manager Holly McLauchlin wrote that when the dredging bids were opened on Tuesday night, at a special meeting of the utilities service board (USB), two bids were received:

• PAF Excavating and Dredging LLC. Total Lump Sum: $161,865 Supplemental $27.62/cubic yard hydraulic dredging and $18.62/cubic yard dewatering
• Merrell Bros. Total Lump Sum: $419,350 Supplemental $2,629 per dry ton

Those bids will have to be reviewed and analyzed.

Street told the board that the dredging project has long been in the works. Past B Square reporting includes USB approval of a late November 2021 project to map the depths of the ponds.

The city’s administration put Miller-Showers Park in the spotlight on Monday with a news release that announced next steps on the “bicentennial gateway” project that generated a lot of controversy last year.

Under considerable public pressure last year, the parks department  scrapped a planned vertical monolith proposal. The new gateway concept is for a horizontal design with limestone blocks. President of the board of park commissioners, Kathleen Mills, noted at Tuesday’s meeting that they had also heard feedback from some who question the need for any kind of sign at the entrance to town.

The revised concept also includes a component for public art.

The item approved by board of park commissioners on Tuesday night was a $42,300 change in the contract with Rundell Ernstberger Associates (REA) to incorporate changes to the gateway design. Changes need to be made to the base and the surrounding site improvements, which will be different for a horizontal structure compared to the vertical design.

Streets told the board at Tuesday’s meeting that the Bloomington Arts Commission will put out a public call for an art installation and make the selection of the art. Streets said there is not an updated rendering of the project that includes the public art element.

Responding after Tuesday’s meeting to an emailed B Square question, Streets wrote that the budget for the public art component has not yet been determined. But he indicated that the money for the public art would be drawn from the same “bicentennial bond” that is funding the gateway project.

The issuance of the bicentennial bonds was approved in late 2018 by the city council. They were branded as “bicentennial bonds” because 2018 marked the 200th year since the founding of Bloomington. The amount set aside for gateway projects in the bond issuance was $1.5 million.

During the firefighter cold water training exercises on Sunday, the wildlife denizens of Miller-Showers Park kept an eye on things. From their perches in the trees, a pair of red-tailed hawks hunted the snow dusted fields for varmints. A great blue heron was posted up on the north side of the pedestrian bridge that marks the north edge of the last detention pond.

Photos: Miller-Showers Park wildlife activity (Jan. 21, 2024)