COEUR d'ALENE - Part one is nearly in the books.

The first steps of reconstructing McEuen Field are expected to wrap up later this month, project stakeholders said this week.

Crews are expected to pave the southern entrance to the new City Hall parking lot at Eighth Street and Young Avenue early next week, finishing the project by the middle of the month, wrote Keith Erickson, Lake City Development Corp. spokesman, in a newsletter updating the downtown park project.

The new City Hall lots will be open to the public by Nov. 16, although finishing touches on the parking areas may impose minor inconveniences over the next several weeks.

The upgraded parking lots will accommodate 186 vehicles and 26 boat trailer spots. Crews are hoping to hydroseed the parking lot islands this fall. Next spring, 43 trees and 235 bushes will be planted within those areas, Erickson wrote.

Gravel, meanwhile, has been laid on the new trail along the base of Tubbs Hill, but soggy fall conditions have postponed paving until next spring. Though work will soon be shutting down for the season, crews plan to install light poles in the City Hall lots and construct a retaining wall along Young Avenue west of Eighth Street during the winter.

The majority of the estimated $14.2 million project will be completed next year. The parking lot portions were the first step toward revamping the park, but city officials have said they hope to have the bulk of the project's work out to bid late this year or early next year.

LCDC, the city's urban renewal agency, has agreed to fund a majority of the multi-million dollar project.