Clear Lake City Council approves addressing improvements to City Park Band Shell

CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake City Council last night approved a professional services agreement with Atura Architecture of Clear Lake to address improvements needed at the City Park Band Shell.

The Parks Department recently brought forward some concerns about needed maintenance and possible upgrades to the facility, with all the items being well beyond the city staff’s ability to undertake.

City Administrator Scott Flory says while this type of a project wasn’t budgeted for in the current fiscal year budget, the city should try to make the improvements before next summer.  “Not included in our Fiscal Year 2024 budget, but it would be something that we’d propose as an add on. I think we should probably consider starting that now so that we be in a position to bid these improvements out over the winter so they can be started on this spring, and hopefully wrapped up by Memorial Day.”

Austin Pehl of Atura Architecture says there’s several minor things that need to be done to the band shell and the adjoining Lakeview Room.  “Exterior, there are a lot more challenges, you’re pretty limited on where your stairway is right now, and that affects your stage in front, so ideally we could figure out something internal that would be beneficial and easier done. That might look at the configuration of the bathrooms and accessibility from the Lakeview Room, and maybe opening up those stairs a little bit or maybe there’s opportunities within storage areas on the backside as well.”

The council last night approved the professional services agreement with Atura to assist with the planning, design, bidding and construction of the project, with the total cost of the agreement being $18,500.