City council asked to approve more money for downtown ballpark

City council is expected to make a major decision on the fate of the downtown ballpark on Tuesday.

A request has been made for millions more to complete the stadium.

Three items on Tuesday’s agenda seek up to $10 million in additional funding for the ballpark, straying away from the initial $50 million price tag.

The first item is the issuance of $57 million dollars in bonds.

The second agenda item is to approve extending the dollar amount with ballpark contractor Jordan-Hunt from about $40 million to about $50 million dollars.Five million dollarsfor potential contingency costs and another $5 million for street work and a pedestrian walkway.

City engineer, Alan Shubert said funding for the two projects is available from 2010 certificates of obligation and 2012 Quality of Life Bonds.

Lastly, another $725,000 will be needed for design firm Populous’ additional services. Shubert said Populous has made additions to the design.

If the money is not approved, Shubert said engineers will have to go back to the drawing board to redesign the ballpark.

“We could scale it back, we absolutely can build a ballpark for $50 million dollars, but it’s not going to be the ballpark the community wants, in my opinion,” said Shubert.

He said several aspects of the ballpark could be affected like a smaller seat count for the stadium and less suites.

Shubert said the stadium and opening day for the 2014 season would be affected.