Despite More Cost, Max Berg Park Improvements Advance

Sidewalks and traffic control improvements around are forecast to cost $59,000 more than initially projected, but the City Council is moving ahead with the project nonetheless.

City staffers say they will send the project out to bid by the end of this year, a requirement for the city to keep more than $500,000 in grant money from the federal government. The total cost estimate for the improvements is $915,000.

The project will include crosswalks to , an eight-foot-wide sidewalk encompassing the park and landscaping that will keep vehicles from cutting around the square park’s corners, improving the safety of the routes to school.

Councilman was the sole dissenting vote. He agreed that the park needs improvements, but argued that this specific project wouldn't increase safety—the reason the city received the “safe routes to school” grant in the first place.

“It does not make the route to school one bit safer,” he said. “Anyone coming from the Camino Real side crosses through the park.”