The Bare Necessities
“Sequencing” is the new “phasing” as Mammoth Recreation Commission hears presentation on Multi-Use Facility
At the Tuesday, January 9 Mammoth Recreation Commission Meeting, Town Engineering Manager Haislip Hayes told Commissioners that the proposed Multi-Use Facility at Mammoth Creek Park West may be built in “sequences,” as funding becomes available, as opposed to being built in one push.
Hayes and Parks and Recreation Director Stu Brown walked commissioners through a virtual building rendering that Brown called a “bare minimum” design, meaning it included only the bare necessities required to allow the ice rink facility to function.
“You know that I stand behind building something great for this community,” said Commissioner Christie Osborne. “What I don’t want to build is the ice skating version of Canyon Lodge.”
As the Commissioners got the “tour” of the proposed Multi-Use Facility (which the Town has renamed The Park), Brown and Engineering Manager Haislip Hayes explained that some of the features will be “sequenced,” meaning that they will be added to the building later. Primarily, work on the proposed 2,500-square foot Community Center will not be started until at least spring of 2019, according to the Town’s staff report (which proposed that construction would begin on the MUF in June/July of this year).
Hayes said that Town Staff have considered a scenario in which the shell of the community center is constructed, but where certain non-essential components of the building are left unfinished until a later date. Hayes offered installing only a portion of the floor, or not installing the floor at all as possible sequences in the project’s construction.
“If we could shelve this [the Community Center] for a later date, and save X number of dollars, that is an alternate that I think is viable,” said Hayes Tuesday. “It’s not a preferred one, but if the Council has to make a hard decision on the financing, we have to provide alternates.” Hayes said that the proposed 150-space parking lot is another optional component of the project.
Osborne emphasized that it was important that the building, which was designed with an “industrial type look,” according to Hayes, be a welcoming space. “A place to create family memories,” not just a place where parents come to watch their kids play hockey, she said.
“I’m super concerned, given the value-engineering conversation, and the ‘We’re not phasing, we’re sequencing,’ conversation, that as we handle some of the budgetary restraints that we have… we start to create a framework for how we want people to feel in this space.”
Brown told the Commission that “much of the programming and playbook is really informing the design of the building.”
“We have the framework for what we want [people] to do,” said Osborne. “If this Multi-Use Facility and ice rink are going to work well for this community, we have to start thinking of how people are going to feel.”
The designs offered Tuesday included tempered glass around the circumference of the ice rink. The proposed chiller for the ice rink will have to be located outside, meaning it will only be functional during the cold season.
“To have an indoor-outdoor facility is our main attraction,” said Brown of the decision to make the rink semi-open air and put the chiller outside. “Kids can skate indoors anywhere in the country.”
The staff report stated that “Staff and HMC have finalized a preliminary design for the facility that will be used to complete the construction plans and bid specifications including deductive and additive alternatives (chiller package, locker rooms, etc.).”
“Have we gotten input from tournament organizers and [potential partners the L.A.] Kings in terms of what they need in order to pay to get on our ice?”
“For right now, working with that group and our consultants, [the design presented on Tuesday] was kind of the bare minimum,” said Brown.
“As we kind of worked through the programing, we understand the expectations of…running large scale tournaments and events, the minimum requirement was four locker rooms. They talked about a minimum requirement of having one shower stall space per locker. That’s something we couldn’t really commit to.”
Brown said that instead the proposed facility has “two locker rooms attached to a shower stall and restroom and a couple of sinks,” resulting in four 250-square foot locker room spaces in total.
He said there will also be a full family restroom that meets ADA requirements.
