News
Hundreds Pay Respects to King

Three Trails in 30 Years

Around the Area

Briefs

Range of Projects Displayed at Expo

Estancia Teen Gets Worldwide Education

CNM To Offer Courses in Edgewood

DWI Memorial Needs Help To Stay Open

Bidding Process To Start on Arts Center

Mother of 5 Arrested in Fatal Stabbing

More
News

HOME	CLASSIFIEDS	OBITUARIES	SPORTS	OPINION

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Village Hopes to Finish Park by Next Year

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
    The Tijeras Village Council approved plans Monday to move forward on a long-anticipated park.
    The Luis Garcia Park, between the East Mountain Library and the historic Holy Child Church, is dedicated in remembrance of Luis Garcia, a Tijeras resident who was killed in a notorious shooting along with two friends as they sat in their car in Sandia Knolls on May 29, 1999.
    Work has been done on the park over the course of several years, but it is not yet open. That's not for lack of effort, according to Tijeras Mayor Gloria Chavez.
    "Because of the way we get funding we're trying to piecemeal the project," she said in a phone interview Tuesday.
    Over time the village has funded small projects in the park, at about $30,000 a year in many cases, for the last five or six years.
    In addition, state Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Sandia Park, used her discretionary funds for playground equipment, according to Chavez.
    In 2008 the village may be able to secure enough funding to finally open the park.
    Architect John Pate of Molzen-Corbin and Associates presented a breakdown of remaining project costs at Monday's council meeting.
    He broke the work still needed into two bid lots.
    Pate said the first bid lot— the minimum needed to open the park— is $385,000. It would include a pavilion for shade, bathrooms, all concrete work and several other features.
    About $330,000 from legislative appropriations and other sources is already earmarked for the park. Chavez said she expects the yearly contribution from the village, another $30,000, to be in place by July 1, 2008.
    If lobbying efforts at the upcoming legislative session are successful, additional features like landscaping and irrigation, picnic tables, benches, bike racks and trash receptacles may be added into the first bid lot. Pate estimates landscaping and irrigation will run $53,000 and the tables and other items will cost about $20,000.
    The second bid lot, for a circular veteran's memorial, is expected to cost $60,000. Pate said decorative rock work around the memorial would be an additional $83,000.
    In addition, the village hopes to fund artwork that may include plaques for the veteran's memorial commemorating specific wars, likely starting with Vietnam.
    Another possibility for artwork, according to the mayor, is lifelike statues of Luis Garcia and the two other boys who were killed in 1999.
    Mayor Chavez said the village will work with the boy's parents to decide what is appropriate.