ABOVE: The pickleball/tennis courts at Veterans Park in Fairmont. The courts, and park in general, has been a discussion item among both the Fairmont Park Board and City Council and the Park Board again discussed it at its meeting on Tuesday. Sentinel file photo.

FAIRMONT – Picking up on a discussion from last month’s Park Board meeting and last week’s City Council meeting, the future of Veterans Park and the courts there had further conversation at Tuesday’s Park Board meeting.

Board Member Vicky Schulte said there had been mention of digging up buildings and the cost of doing so. It’s the status of recently built buildings she has concern for.

“That bathroom building is a newer building,” she said “There were a couple other things put in there over the years that have been fairly new.”

With these concerns laid out, she asked what the main purpose of it all is.

Public Works Director Matthew York said the purpose would be cleaning up the whole site to make it suitable for whatever they want to do there in the future.

“Whether it be shelter house, proper foundations for the pickleball courts, tennis courts, basketball courts, etc,” he said.

Requests have already been sent out for potential funding toward this project in the form of EPA Brownfield Grants approved by the City Council on June 11. York said either they would do it as a city, not do it as a city, piecemeal it together, or do soil remediation to ensure there aren’t sinking foundations in the future.

The funding would go toward tearing up the entire pickleball court area, removing debris from the burnt-down 1969 Fairmont Junior High School which lays underground, and fixing foundation drainage, according to York.

“There’s two different scenarios,” he said. “The first scenario is if we get funding, the bill available money to take care of park remediation. If we don’t get funding for remediation in the entire park, then we would have to only remediate areas while we fix them.”

With those scenarios in mind, Schulte asked how these scenarios would affect new buildings already put in like the bathrooms. York said it would depend on the debris field and how far it’s spread beneath the ground.

“The debris field is probably where those new bathrooms are at because that was built slab on grade, versus the four-foot foundations or eight-foot foundations that we have to build,” he said.

As it was a discussion item, no action was taken.

In other news:

— Board Member Jodie Whitmore asked about the Community Center and the status of money contributed to it that could go elsewhere. City Council Representative Randy Lubenow recommended she attend the July 14 City Council meeting where the issue will be discussed further.

— York brought up a request from a resident looking to plant a tree on a city-owned boulevard. Per city code, the Park Board is also the Tree Board and would be responsible for approving such a request. Board Member Jane Kollofski asked if the council could have a list of trees not allowed to be planted on the boulevard, which York said would be supplied. York said currently the resident wants to plant a tree on the no-plant list but would invite him to speak at a future meeting.

— Rain has been having an effect on some Park functions. York said a large arbor is scheduled to go in at Lincoln Park this week weather dependent, mowing has been difficult in some parks due to rain saturation, and showers have done some heavy lifting for workers who water flower beds.