City leaders are preparing for work on Butler Rough Hollow Park to begin this summer, with the latest City Council action pinning down one of several project managers to come for the city’s parks bond projects.

A motion allowing the city manager to negotiate an up to $253,550 contract with Pape-Dawson Consulting Engineers LLC was approved in a 5-1 decision at the March 16 City Council meeting, with council member Matt Sherman dissenting.

The details

Voters approved a $22 million bond to fund citywide parks projects in 2024, including:

Lakeway City Park: $10.65 millionLakeway Swim Center Park: $6.02 millionLive Oak Tennis Courts: $2.72 millionButler Rough Hollow Park: $2.1 millionLakeway Activity Center: $508,771Work was completed on the Lakeway Activity Center’s playground, the smallest project of the five, in September. Although the city hasn’t used project managers for its bond work so far, the projects moving forward are more complicated and will happen simultaneously to deliver them on time, Director of Parks and Recreation Andra Bennett said.

“Simply put, we don’t have the bandwidth or the expertise that is needed from an engineering standpoint to now manage these larger park projects,” Bennett said. “This will help us stay on schedule, remain within budget and meet city standards, while also helping reduce risk and potential liability.”

The discussion

Sherman voted against the item due to cost concerns, and the mounting fiscal impact of contracting out a firm like this for each of the remaining projects.

“This fee is approaching 10% equivalent of the actual budget for the park. … It just seems like a big number,” Sherman said. “If we have multiple projects we’re going to be doing, have we considered hiring in-house? Because this is just for Rough Hollow.”

The costs presented at the meeting are standard when it comes to consulting fees, Bennett said, and the idea of hiring an outside consultant for project management has been part of the bond discussion since its inception.

“We understood we were going to need someone like this, and this was within the budget we approved … so, I’m not surprised in the slightest we have this,” Mayor Pro Tem Louis Mastrangelo said. “I completely understand why we need to use somebody like this as opposed to trying to wing it on our own.”

Diving in deeper

The final design for Butler Rough Hollow Park was scaled down from original conceptual plans due to cost, with community conversations helping drive those decisions, according to previous Community Impact reporting.

Plans updated in July for the park include an amphitheater with limestone block seating, a mountain bike course, a basketball area with six individual hoop stations, a multisports field including baseball and soccer equipment, a ninja course, and a playground area with accessible and shaded structures.

Butler Rough Hollow Park conceptual plans include a multisports field, ninja course, playgrounds and more. (Courtesy city of Lakeway)

Moving forward

The Butler Rough Hollow project is expected to take 300 calendar days, Bennett said, and the hope is to have “a shovel in the ground” by June 1.

According to the city, the bond project timelines include:

May 2024: bond passesSept. 2025: Lakeway Activity Center playground completedNov. 2025: design firm chosen for Lakeway City ParkSpring 2026: contractor chosen for Butler Rough Hollow parkSpring 2027: Butler Rough Hollow Park completedEarly 2028: Lakeway City Park completedTBD: Lakeway Swim Center completedTBD: Live Oak Tennis Courts completed

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