The Eudora City Commission dealt Monday with a number of parks-related issues, including the approval of staff’s effort to hire a design firm for a proposed south sports complex.

At its first November meeting, commissioners directed city staff to work with a design team headed by VSR Design, of Overland Park, on a scope of services and fees for the design of a sports complex. The field complex, which will be needed to replace soccer and football fields lost with any future development of the old Nottingham Elementary School, is to be built on school district property between Eudora Middle School and High School. The school district has agreed to allow the city to develop the property at no cost.

Assistant to the City Manager Leslie Herring said from meetings with VSR representatives, it was agreed the design contract would require a topographical survey. With that, the designers could develop a schematic design for the complex. That work would require VSR to develop “two or three” site plans with conceptual grading, floor plans and elevations for a restroom shelter building as well as playground and trail options. Additionally, the design team would be asked to present their plans in a way the city could use for fundraising and update cost estimates for constructing the complex.

Herring said VSR estimates the maximum cost for those services to be about $24,000. That cost assumes the fields would have artificial turf surfaces and lighting. Should those elements be eliminated, the design price tag would be cut. Also contributing to the design cost is the size and amenities in a concession stand, she said.

City Manager Barack Matite said VSR understood the schematic design would be the extent of the design team’s work until the city found the money to pay for the complex’s construction. The city is looking for private donations and corporate sponsorships to help with that expense.

Only when construction funding was identified would a contract be considered for the final design phases, Matite said.

In addition to a proposed contract, he would present commissioners at their Dec. 12 meeting with a revenue report on the city’s three-quarter-cent parks and recreation sales tax, which will pay for VSR’s design contract, Matite said.

Mayor Tim Reazin said he and Commissioner Ruth Hughs met last week with a Eudora school board member and Superintendent Steve Splichal. Mutual maintenance of the complex the school district would use was discussed, as well as a formal agreement ensuring the city’s right to use the property, he said.

The commission also accepted the transfer of about an acre parcel of land at 15th and Maple streets that could become a future park. Herring said the now-defunct Grand Addition Homeowners Association Inc. owned the property for about the last 15 years. It was set aside for future green space development but nothing was ever done other than a sidewalk around its north, west and south sides.

The city has been maintaining the parcel and approached the officers in the former association, who were pleased to deed the property at no cost for use in the city’s park system. Herring said work would be required to remove trees and clean fill from three culverts serving an onsite detention pond at the property. City crews would be able to do the work, she said.