“ Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion. There is no greater feeling than building a park that impacts people’ s lives in a profound way in our community.”
COMMUNITY COLLABORATION
With Valley Park in the process of several renovations— including an updated wave pool, a new community building with a conference center, an allaccess playground, new athletic offerings and a robust community garden project— Putnam County residents and others will benefit in 2018 from the work and creativity of a team of stellar West Virginia businesses.
GAI Consultants Inc., ZMM Architects & Engineers, Cherry River Construction, Wolf Creek Contracting Co. and Danhill Construction Company have joined with the Putnam County Parks and Recreation Commission to transform Valley Park into an even greater destination.
“ It’ s remarkable what can be done when a great team is assembled,” says Dean.“ The Putnam County Commission has done an amazing job putting a great team together. It’ s an extreme honor to be among these professionals in their industry.”
CREATING A PLAN
The project began in 2013 when GAI’ s Community Solutions Group was hired by the Putnam County Parks and Recreation Commission to do a Parks, Recreation and Open Space, or PROS, plan for the entirety of Putnam County. According to Gilmore, the plan looked at the assets, efficiencies and needs of the county’ s parks, and the report yielded a master plan for Valley Park.
GAI estimated the cost of the updates suggested for Valley Park, which came in at about $ 15 million, and Putnam County officials decided to use its tax increment financial, or TIF, funds to pay for the updates right away. TIF funds are money set aside from property taxes in a certain geographic area. If the property taxes are growing in a TIF district, that creates a pot of funds designated for infrastructure and recreational development.
“ It’ s been exciting to be part of a project that is coming to fruition relatively quickly,” says Gilmore.“ When completed, this park will prove to be a regional destination that will benefit the county economically.”
LAYING THE GROUND WORK
ZMM Architects & Engineers was hired to design a new maintenance building and the new community building and conference center. The new facilities will have stone, brick and exposed timber for a lodge look and will serve as a high-quality building for weddings, proms, receptions and other special events.
David Ferguson, vice president of ZMM, who grew up in Putnam County, is excited to be part of a project that helps his growing hometown community meet its expanding needs.“ The old community building served a wonderful purpose for many years and was a labor of love that was built by volunteers,” he says.
He believes the new building will help Putnam County carry on beloved traditions and offer some new ones through its grander size and state-of-the-art features.
“ Architects have designed first-class facilities here,” says Brian Hinkle of Cherry River Construction, which was hired as the subcontractor in charge of grading the land and overseeing utility work for the project.“ The architects and owners came up with a vision that’ s first class. When it’ s done, the people of Putnam County will be proud, and it will be an economic boon to our area.”
Wolf Creek Contracting Co. served as general contractor on the project, and the company’ s vice president, Don Gatewood, had nothing but praise for the leadership behind the additions and renovations.
“ I’ m impressed with how aggressive the leadership team has been about putting something like this together,” he says.“ It’ s going to be awesome, and we’ re very excited to be part of it.”
“ Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion. There is no greater feeling than building a park that impacts people’ s lives in a profound way in our community.”