MOUNT VERNON — Work is in progress on a new parking lot on Sychar Road, just north of the water park. The lot will be used primarily for water park staff and will free up parking spots in existing spaces.
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Trees have been removed from the property for the lot, but Safety-Service Director Dave Glass said the city has taken care to preserve the feel of the area in doing so.
“The logs taken out of the interior of the property were put under the ownership of the contractor,” said Glass. “That was part of his contract. We surveyed the lot before we went up there. There were a lot of young walnut trees in the lot but there were maybe eight to 10 pretty significant walnuts along Sychar Road, and those are all being left. So we are leaving the trees along Sychar and a tree line along the houses on the north end and a tree line along the ball field side of it.
“We will also have a sidewalk to the pool.”
The design of the parking lot will involve the use of pervious concrete, a porous material that will aid in drainage and reduce erosion in the immediate area.
“Ninety percent of the lot will be asphalt. But Cameron [Keaton] has worked with County Engineer Jim Henry and secured a grant to fund what we will put along the east side of the lot. It will be a concrete strip, perhaps 10 feet wide, where the water will come across the lot and go into the porous concrete and go into the ground.”
The use of this material comes from a CDBG grant worked on by Henry and Rob Clendening, district manager of the Knox Soil & Water Conservation District.
“The city got approval for a CDBG grant to build this parking lot,” said Henry. “It will be overflow for the water park. This has been in the works and I got the blessing from the Soil & Water Conservation District and Cameron Keaton, the city engineer, and we applied for storm water improvement funds through the EPA. We wrote the grant application describing a high visibility area, and thought it would be a good chance to do some public education on the use of some of the latest and greatest products for storm water management.
