By the summer of 2017, expect to see a new swimming and fishing floating dock at Lake Meridian Park and a new synthetic turf field at Hogan Park at Russell Road.

The Kent City Council approved separate consulting contracts on March 1 to begin design work for both projects. The new $1.7 million dock could be done as soon as this fall while the $1.9 million field conversion could be done by early 2017.

“It’s really exciting knowing the legacy of our park system and these two projects are great examples of how to take what we have and maximize it for future generations,” Parks Director Jeff Watling said at the council’s Parks and Human Services Committee meeting on Feb. 25.

City staff first sought funds for the deteriorating dock at Lake Meridian as part of the repairs planned if voters passed a six-year street/parks levy in 2012 to increase property taxes. Voters turned down that $29 million measure ($18 million for parks, $11 million for streets) and city staff began to look elsewhere to fund park projects and street repairs.

The city received a $500,000 grant last year from the state Recreation and Conservation Office to help pay for the new dock. The council last year approved a 2016 budget adjustment proposed by Mayor Suzette Cooke that will fund the remaining $1.2 million from 2008 bond proceeds originally intended to build a new East Hill maintenance facility that city officials later abandoned.

“It’s very old,” city parks planner Hope Gibson told the council committee about the dock built by King County in the 1980s before the city annexed the area. “We have had to restrict some of the use, for example, we no longer allow people to stand on it during (Fourth of July Splash) fireworks because we don’t want it to carry that kind of a load. So far, we’ve been lucky it hasn’t sunk or had any issues.”

Several floats on the dock are listing and some of the pilings anchoring the floats are loose, according to city parks staff.

The council approved a $197,660 contract with Everett-based Reid Middleton, Inc., an engineering firm, to design the new dock. Construction is scheduled to start after Labor Day weekend following the busy summer swimming season at the park. The dock will go in the same spot as the existing dock.

The swim beach had about 100,000 visitors last summer between Father’s Day and Labor Day, Watling said.

New field at Hogan Park

The city will spend about $1.9 million to convert the main field at Hogan Park at Russell Road to synthetic turf from grass in order to get year round use out of the field.

“We look to maximize complexes, and these fields were built in the 1970s,” Watling said. “Field one is about 3.5 acres and we will convert it to synthetic turf.”

Now used only for baseball and softball, the new field will also be marked for soccer and lacrosse. The new turf will allow baseball and softball in the fall and winter as well. The plan is to use the multi-sport field 12 months a year.

Hogan Park field has lights, but those lights may need to be upgraded after the design work because the lights were set up for the one baseball field and not for multipurpose use, Gibson said.

The city annually draws numerous baseball and softball tournaments to Hogan Park.

The city received a $500,000 grant last year from the state Recreation and Conservation Office as well as a state Youth Athletic Facility grant of $250,000 to help pay for the field. The council last year approved a proposal by Cooke to use $1 million from the real estate excise tax (0.50 percent on all property sales) to pay for the field. The remaining $200,000 will come from 2016 parks capital revenue, Watling said.

The council approved a $136,195 contract with Seattle-based D.A. Hogan and Associates to design the new field.

D.A. Hogan also replaced the turf fields in 2014 at the city-owned Wilson Playfields.

That project cost $1.8 million, using $500,000 from the general fund, $800,000 from the real estate excise tax and the remainder from delaying other park improvement projects identified in the capital improvement fund. The city also had the Wilson Playfields project on its 2012 levy list.