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Steering Committee for The Fields at 17 Springs in Millbrook to Meet This Week; Plans Moving Forward

BY SARAH STEPHENS

ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS

Artist’s rendering of the primary facility.

Photo above is an artist’s rendering of the football field and stadium area which will be in Phase 2 of the total project.

Plans are moving forward on the Fields at 17 Springs project in Millbrook. Five entities will have a role in the multi-million-dollar plan including the City of Millbrook, Elmore County Commission, ECEDA, Elmore County School Board and the Grandview Family YMCA.

“We are in the position now that the steering committee will have our first full meeting (this week) to get formal approval for the design contracts for 17 Springs Phase 1,” Elmore County Chief Operating Officer Richie Beyer told the Millbrook Council at their regular meeting last week. “Phase 1 is the Tennis Complex, Soccer Complex, associated parking with those, ancillary structures that go along with soccer and tennis, and includes a good bit of the road infrastructure.”

Beyer said that Phase 1 will not include the road projects at Hwy. 14 or the signalization included with that. Officials are still working with ALDOT on that project.

“This phase is roughly a $7 million phase and the design costs are in the ballpark of $700,000,” Beyer said. “At our last Commission meeting our commission authorized our chairman upon the approval of the steering committee and legal counsel, your legal counsel and the county’s, finalizing a review of the two contracts – one for landscape architecture and one for landscape architect engineering. Structures involved have to have an architect. Legal Council is reviewing them. I don’t think there is anything major in the contracts that will be a problem. I think the major thing is making sure we have the programming for Phase 1 ready to go and then we can proceed on that. Since the middle of November the county has been onsite working on clearing the main access road going in on Hwy. 14 and clearing the property line between the YMCA and city/county property and making preparations for the surveyors to begin work once the contracts are finalized.”

Also in Phase 1 is a retention pond which will also be a programmable pond for the YMCA. There are three phases in the project with Tennis and Soccer being first.

Phase 2 will be Field House and Triangular baseball fields in Phase 2. Phase 3 is the Stadium along with baseball, track and field/soccer/football areas. Those could potentially be combined, Beyer said.

General estimates for the total project are in the mid $30 million range for the total cost for the partnership agreement that been in discussion for the past several years.

“I understand in talking to the Mayor that this will be on your agenda for the next council meeting to be able to approve. By then the 17 Springs Steering Committee’s recommendation will be complete,” Beyer said.

Beyer said the County will manage the project with the City of Millbrook being invoiced for their portion of the property.

He also said that some of the fields have been rearranged to be mindful of residents in the area, taking into consideration noise levels and lighting to allow for proper buffers.

“When we had our master plan done they put all these pretty things on there and these things that everyone would like to have. There are a number of those that we have stripped out in the initial phase to get the initial improvements in and then figure out what is the best thing. For example, there was a walking trail that went all the way around the lake. In talking to the YMCA about programming for the lake, there were a number of things that we were concerned about. If we create a public access all the way around the lake, and they are trying to program from the backside, is that the best use of our time and energy on the front end?”

Officials said that as work begins, other features could be added later based on the budget.

Millbrook’s Engineer Stuart Peters and Beyer are working hand in hand on this project.

There will be several restroom facilities near the fields, and the discussion on those include making them safe rooms in the event of bad weather during events.

District 4 County Commissioner Bart Mercer said “The County Commission is committed to this project. If you look at this map we know that pretty much everything on this map is a need of some entity involved. It isn’t something that we just decided to do. We also had a study done for a needs assessment. There is definitely a need for this and we heard from the community.”

He praised all of the agencies involved, and their ability to work well together.

As for a projected timeline, Phase 1 could be completed in a year. Phase 2 contracts could begin in the Spring and will last about 24 months. That phase being completed will determine phase 3 and the timeline.