A $262,500 allocation from Oxford Township’s general fund reserves for the construction of a new parks and recreation department maintenance facility in Seymour Lake Park was approved last week by the board of trustees in a 4-2 vote.

The new facility – a 5,000-square-foot pole barn with a 1,536-square-foot lean-to structure – would be located near Coats Rd. The estimated cost is $362,500, of which $100,000 is expected to come from the parks and rec. department.

Officials are planning to renovate, expand and repurpose the 132-acre park’s existing maintenance building, located just east of the main entrance along Seymour Lake Rd.

The building will house a community/senior center along with the parks and rec. department’s administrative offices.

“It’s desperately needed. It’s not a wish,” said Parks and Recreation Director Ron Davis.

Constructing a new maintenance facility represents the first of a three-phase plan, the total estimated cost for which, at this point, is $1.2 million.

“We’re going to be doing this probably over three years,” explained township Engineer Jim Sharpe, who’s working on the project. “It depends on how the funds come in.”

According to documents presented to the township board, the new maintenance facility would be constructed this year.

It would be built to house all of the parks department’s equipment in one location.

Currently, the equipment is scattered in multiple locations including Seymour and Stony Lake parks, a storage facility and local golf courses, according to Davis.

As a result, there’s equipment that sits outside all year long, adding to the wear and tear on it, and park employees “waste” a lot of time driving from one location to another, he explained.

“It’s just ridiculous the amount of time that we spend on the road weekly,” Davis told the board.

Township Supervisor Bill Dunn noted all the equipment that’s currently sitting outside near Seymour Lake Park’s main entrance “looks bad” and doesn’t give visitors a very good first impression.

Davis agreed. He called it “very unsightly.”

The department looked at constructing a new maintenance facility in 2011, but lacked the necessary funds to make it a reality.

“We just couldn’t do it,” Davis said.

In order for the existing maintenance facility to be repurposed as office and community space, a new one must first be built.

“We can’t do Phase 2 and 3 until you do Phase 1,” Davis said.

Phase 2, scheduled for 2017, calls for transforming the current maintenance facility into the parks and rec. department’s administrative offices and a community room.

The offices and supporting rooms would occupy 2,528 square feet – 1,304 square feet on the main floor, plus a 1,224-square-foot second floor.

Owning their own office space would save the department the $14,000 per year it currently pays the village for the space it leases inside the municipal complex on W. Burdick St.

The community room and supporting rooms would occupy 2,095 square feet.

A parking lot with 64 standard spaces and six handicap spaces is also part of the project.

Phase 2’s estimated cost is $500,000, of which $400,000 would come from the proceeds of the township’s sale of the Oxford Veterans Memorial Civic Center last year.

Parks and rec. is expected to kick in another $50,000, leaving an outstanding amount of $50,000 for Phase 2.

Phase 3, scheduled for 2018, would consist of a 3,140-square foot addition that would be used as a senior activity room complete with a basic warming kitchen.

“It’s not going to be a commercial kitchen,” Sharpe noted.

The estimated cost for Phase 3 is $357,000.

“That money, we don’t quite know where it’s coming from yet,” Sharpe said.

Although he must still receive approval from the parks and recreation commission – a separate five-member elected board – to spend $150,000 of the department’s $210,000 in reserves, Davis told township officials, “I know they would invest that amount of money to make this thing a reality.”

“They realize the importance,” he said.

Both Sharpe and Davis said they believe the estimated $857,000 for the second and third phases can be reduced by having the park and rec. department serve as the general contractor for the project.

That’s what happened with the new maintenance facility.

Originally, the department received three bids for the first phase. They ranged from $434,000 to $681,800.

By serving as the general contractor and taking advantage of existing resources and partnerships, the parks department was able to reduce the estimated cost to $362,500.

The parks and rec. department received three bids for the second and third phases. Combined, they ranged from $722,000 to $1.061 million.

But Davis is quite confident they can reduce the costs for the other two phases as well.

“Seventy-five percent of the work that’s going to be done (for Phase 2 and 3 is going to be handled by) the same men and women in our community who gave us bids to build Phase 1,” Davis told the board. “So . . . that same percentage (cost) reduction, I’m sure is going to be there for Phase 2 and Phase 3.”

Dunn cast one of two votes against the $262,500 allocation because of the amount involved. He wanted to stick with the original plan to give $200,000 initially, then provide more funding later, if needed.

“I would feel better just taking it a little bit at a time rather than taking the big chunk,” he explained. “I’d like to do (this) in steps.”