New blacktop at Bucholtz Park

CLINTONVILLE – The asphalt parking lot at Bucholtz Park will be repaved this year, replacing the parking lot at the Clintonville Community Center on the city’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) list of projects to be completed in 2025.
The Clintonville Common Council approved the switch when it met May 13, with the cost of repaving the asphalt parking lot at Bucholtz Park not to exceed $250,000.
When explaining the reason for the requested switch on the CIP, Ald. Stephanie Bonikowske told the council that the city has received a lot of complaints about the condition of Morning Glory Drive, which Bucholtz Park is located on. With the city trying to address the condition of Morning Glory Drive “as fast as possible,” Bonikowske said it would make sense to repave the parking lot at Bucholtz Park first. If Morning Glory Drive would be repaved before Bucholtz Park’s parking lot, the heavy machinery needed for the parking lot project could damage the completed work on Morning Glory Drive.
“That parking lot is in dire need of being redone,” Bonikowske said. “So, we are wanting to use our resources towards that to get that done, so that when we are ready to do (repave) Morning Glory (Drive), everything on the outside and around it is ready and done, so we don’t ruin what we just fixed at Morning Glory.”
Ald. Greg Rose, said the Clintonville Finance Committee felt the city had the funding to complete the repaving of the Bucholtz Park parking lot. Rose said Clintonville Public Works Director Justin Mc Auly didn’t know if the city had enough funds to also pave the gravel parking lot at Bucholtz Park.

“In an ideal circumstance we can find the funding to make both happen,” Rose said. “Hopefully, in the very near future we can get that little section of road right in front of there, repaired as well.”
Rose said the committee did consider the amount of use the Bucholtz Park parking lot receives versus the amount of use the Clintonville Community Center parking lot receives.
“Obviously, this pushes this (Community Center) parking lot right here off til who knows when,” Rose said. “So, that’s still going to have to get done at some point.”
Ald. Jeannie Schley asked if the utilities would also be redone when Morning Glory Drive is repaved.
Mc Auly said the infrastructure is from the 1970s, which is considered “newer.”
He said the Morning Glory Drive project, when it is done, would include curb and gutter, and possibly replacing the base of the road.
“We don’t know what the base is underneath, so we could be digging that up and have to replace the base, but there’s no utilities that are going to be changed,” Mc Auly said.