The Whitefish Parks and Recreation Department will move forward with phase three of improvements for Armory Park, Whitefish’s largest park, as City Council awarded the construction contract for the work to AGC, Inc. last week.

The City of Whitefish received four bids for the Armory Park Master Plan Phase III. Three bids were accepted while one was rejected due to not having the signature page included with the bid. The bid range was 33.3% to 122.5% higher than the engineer’s estimate. AGC, Inc. was the low bidder for the project.

In addition to the base bid, pricing was received on the 10 alternative addition options, including a new well, power, and pump control assembly for irrigation, a section of paved, shared-use path, temporary irrigation and temporary fencing during construction. Three improvements are slated for the Hugh Rogers WAG Park: path and drain improvements and entry landscaping.

Parks and Recreation Director Maria Butts explained to the council that the bids for three of the alternates were not viable. Butts said that staff will do the work in-house for two of the items, planting trees and providing park benches, while one of the items, an interior path, will be incorporated into the next phase.

The base bid plus seven of the 10 alternate options total $929,117. The current overall project budget for FY22 and FY23 is $875,100, which is comprised of funds from an active Land Water Conservation grant, Resort Tax, Impact Fees, Parkland Acquisition and Development, the Stormwater Fund, and the Parks Fund. Additionally, WAG will pay for the three improvements within the dog park, in the amount of almost $65,000.

In 2019 the park board updated the Armory Park Master Plan to identify the next phases of the plan, Phase III and Phase IV. With the updated plan, staff applied for and received a Land Water Conservation grant to complete Phase III of the plan. In October of 2021, the park board approved the final design of phase three.