If all goes well, the Recreation Community Building at Riverside Park could be open by mid-June.
Iola City Council members accepted a pair of bids Thursday to replace the building’s floor after it was flooded last October. The building has been closed ever since.
The gymnasium flooring will consist of removable tiles atop a thin piece of padding, said Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock and Darin Augustine of SJCF Architects.
Council members accepted the low bid of $52,937 from Sport Court Kansas City, Inc.
The other portions of the building, including the Little Theater, will be coated with an epoxy surface with an additional “moisture mitigation” process to seal off cracks and joints in the concrete for a combined $102,355.
The flooring proposed by Epoxy Coating Specialists was favored by SJCF, Schinstock said, based on the products and materials proposed, contractor experience and price.
If flooding occurs again, the new flooring should be impervious to it, Schinstock said.
The city will refrain from using carpet tiles in the Little Theater, but may add rugs at some point, he said.
As for the gymnasium, the hundreds of tiles will be waterproof, but the padding underneath will not.
Even then, if flooding is anticipated, city employees will put their focus first on salvaging records, furniture and office equipment and if times exists, the gym floor tiles could be removed.
Iolan Paul Zirjacks asked if the city could take other protective measures, such as adding water pumps or rebuilding the Southwind Trail dike to protect Riverside Park.
The problem, Schinstock noted, is the park’s proximity to the Neosho River.
The October flooding came from torrential rains, Schinstock continued, not from the river, and the water pumps can remove only so much water at a time, even less if the river is too high.
In response to a second question from Zirjacks, Schinstock noted the combined bids of about $155,000, plus reimbursement for some office equipment and city labor, still is well below the $302,211.01 insurance settlement the city received.
Leftover funds will be placed in a capital projects fund, City Administrator Sid Fleming said, and would be earmarked for the Recreation Department.
