Eudora residents will be able to see designs and learn costs for a new South Sports Complex at an open house later this month.

That open house was scheduled for 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Feb. 27 at Eudora City Hall after the Eudora City Commission gave the green light for city staff to pursue a state grant that could pay for half the complex, which will provide additional soccer, baseball and softball fields.

In December 2016, the City Commission contracted with VSR Design to provide a preliminary design of the South Sports Complex to be built on the Eudora school district’s middle and high school campus. City staffers were to use that preliminary design to search for outside funding to help build the complex.

At Monday’s City Commission meeting, Assistant to the City Manager Leslie Herring said the preliminary plan was finished and the plan now was to apply for a Land and Water Conservation Grant from the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. The grant can provide half the money needed to build qualifying outdoor recreational facilities, she said.

The grant application would be due in April, and the KDWPT would announce grant awards in September. Herring said if the city was awarded the grant, construction on the complex would start in March 2018 and the first games would be played in the new complex in spring of 2019.

The city has benefited from the grant program in the past. In 1976, the same grant helped build the Babe Ruth field, the picnic facility and swimming pool in Lucy Kaegi Park, Herring said.

The complex’s preliminary designs have been shared with city and school district officials for comment and revisions. The final designs will be displayed at the Feb. 27 open house. The City Commission will consider approval of the final designs at its meeting that same night. Staff and VSR Design will present different options to phase in the complex with cost estimates at the meeting, Herring said.

The city extended a $5,000 contract with the firm Community Grants Associates to help with the grant application process, Herring said. The firm has helped other Kansas cities successfully apply for the KDWPT grant, she said.

The city is looking for another state program to move forward on two water projects. As discussed last month, the city plans to take advantage of a low-interest loan program the Kansas Department of Health and Environment offers. The loans would finance the $381,000 Winchester waterline project and the $219,000 upgrades needed to make operational a water well donated to the city.

The loans would be paid off in a 15-year period with monthly payments of $4,029, Herring said. Easing impact on water rates from the loan is the retirement in October of bonds for a past water tower project and its annual $155,000 payment.

The waterline project would install a 12-inch waterline from the water tower at 14th and Maple streets west along 14th Street. It would tie into an existing 12-inch line on Winchester Road.

The state has informed the city it needs to start using the former irrigation well or risk losing its associated water rights at the end of 2017. When operational, it would join four existing wells northwest of the city that supply Eudora water. It would give the city the assurance the water department could meet demand during peak periods should one of the existing wells fail.

Herring said engineering for the waterline project could start immediately. Construction could start in May and the projects could be finished by the end of the year, Herring said.