City Council to pick option for park’s restroom facility
Published 7:05 pm Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Washington’s City Council, during its meeting Monday, is scheduled to consider awarding a contract to construct public restrooms at the P.S. Jones Memorial Park on the former site of P.S. Jones High School.
The council is expected to review two options. Option A calls for building a 24-foot-by-20-foot-8-inch facility at a cost of $56,100. The contractor would be DB&H Commercial Contractors, according to a city document. Option B would have the city spend $49,838 to build a 24-foot-by-15-foot-8-inch facility. The contractor for that option is Paul Woolard Construction, according to the document.
DB&H Commercial Contractors, Paul Woolard Construction and Turning Point submitted bids on the options. DB&H Commercial Construction was the low bidder on Option A, with Paul Woolard Construction the low bidder on Option B. Turning Point was the high bidder on each option.
The restroom facility would be similar to those at the Todd Maxwell baseball complex on West Third Street.
The project is in the city’s capital-improvements plan at an estimated cost of $50,000.
The Kate B. Reynolds Foundation gave Beaufort County Schools $145,000 to build a playground and shelter at P.S. Jones Memorial Park. A previously awarded $55,000 grant from the trust has been earmarked to pay for a concrete walking trail around the park property. The city committed to building restroom facilities that would serve P.S. Jones Memorial Park and the adjacent Beebe Memorial Park.
P.S. Jones Memorial Park is named for Peter Simon Jones, a Washington educator and for whom the former P.S. Jones High School was named. Jones served at the school from 1927 to 1949. Washington Colored High School’s name was changed in 1950 to honor Jones, former principal of the school.
The P.S. Jones Memorial Park is viewed as a complement to Beebe Memorial Park, which was built in phases. That park includes walkways, an elevated viewing area, a memorial area honoring Bishop J.A. Beebe and local black history, benches and picnic tables, a gazebo-like shelter and a number of trees and shrubs. It also includes a circular memorial that contains headstones from graves from an abandoned cemetery in the northwest corner of the park. Beebe, who was from North Carolina, was elected as a bishop of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church on March 23, 1873.
The council meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Council Chambers in the Municipal Building, 102 E. Second St. To view the council’s agenda for a specific meeting, visit the city’s website at www.washingtonnc.gov, click “City Agendas.” Locate the appropriate agenda (by date) under the “Washington City Council” heading, then click on that specific agenda listing.