COEUR d'ALENE - The city of Coeur d'Alene will keep the McEuen Field communication position in house.

It won't contract an engineer for the job - a possibility it recently considered.

Instead, the city will keep communication lines open between project engineers and nearby property owners with the help of its own staff during construction season.

Dennis Grant, project manager in the engineering department, will head the communication position, City Administrator Wendy Gabriel said Wednesday.

"It's important property owners and residents in general know what's going on and who to contact should they have any construction-related issues," she said in a press release. "This is a huge undertaking. Communication will be key."

Grant's role will be to share information on the project status, road closures, upcoming work, how to access businesses, temporary water outages and any other unforeseen issues as they occur. Grant, who has worked in the city department for 13 years, can also work with the city's Public Information Officer, Kristina Lyman, to update information for people who are affected by the park's construction schedule, Gabriel said.

Construction on the roughly $15 million project could kick off next week, and stretch into next spring.

Handling the communication component in house could save money.

Last month, the city of Coeur d'Alene and its urban renewal agency agreed to contract an engineer as a McEuen Field information point of contact. Both the city and Lake City Development Corp., have a public information officer, but said at the time the size and scope of the downtown project required its own PIO, or ombudsman. They'd pegged the contract to cost around $24,000.

But the city decided it could handle the position in house, Gabriel said, partly because no overlay projects are scheduled this summer, which frees the engineer department's schedule. All the city's overlay funds are allocated toward the park project. Grant manages overlay projects and managed the Fourth Street improvement project a few years ago.