Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Britta McKenna gave an enthusiastic preview of what’s to come for beautiful downtown Batavia. In the first week of June, the Batavia Parks Foundation will begin the renovation of the Riverwalk boardwalk. The existing infrastructure will largely stay the same and the majority of the work will be done updating and
redoing the walkway. 

Some of the largest changes will be bringing the walkways up to code for ADA (put into place after the Riverwalk’s initial construction), and bringing electricity to code. Also, they will be creating a deck over the triangle patch to accommodate for weddings and removing the river access ramp, which is seldom used.

The total cost of the renovation is $177,000, which will be funded by City TIF funds, the Park District, the Parks Foundation, and a possible Riverboat Grant (final decision will be made mid-June, two weeks after the project begins).

Dennis Kintop will be the construction manager again, and Britta also directed the club to places of interest. The boardwalk has its own Facebook page and website www.purchaseaplank.com. She also assured the club that part of the boardwalk would be open during construction.

Lastly, she mentioned that only one area for sponsorship was available. Holly Deitchman put forth the motion to sponsor the triangle near the Rotary Gazebo, and John Clark seconded. The motion carried with no opposition.