FARMVILLE – Town Council was given a vision of its Field Of Dreams sports complex Wednesday night, as Hurt & Proffitt unveiled a proposed master plan.

Town officials will review the plans-the estimated total budget cost of doing everything is $5.36 million and could be done in phases over a three-year period-which offer three options for development of playing fields and parking, with the choice of a new or renovated concession facility.

Hurt & Proffitt is optimistic the total cost could be less than estimated and Town Manager Gerald Spates said the Town could do much of the work itself, while seeking private donations for specific aspects of the plan-someone wanting to donate money for a specific field, for example.

The Town could choose a mixture of grass and synthetic turf fields and a variety of field layouts that would accommodate baseball, softball, soccer, football and lacrosse, with field sizes for various age groups, according to Wednesday night's presentation.

No decisions were made Wednesday night, with Hurt & Proffitt putting the finishing touches on the 60-plus page redesign and expansion proposal created in response to the Town's request.

Farmville's request for proposal sought redesign and expansion plans for field layout, redesign of the concession area, irrigation system, fencing and landscaping, Hurt & Proffitt Vice President for Marketing, Earl H. Dickerson, Jr., noted during the presentation at Town Council's regular December meeting.

The Town purchased the Field Of Dreams complex from STEPS to allow continued use by the Prince Edward Farmville Youth Association, which had many of its key volunteer leaders present Wednesday night.

Members of the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors were also in attendance, at the Town's invitation, Farmville interested in any partnering the County might be willing to embrace.

“The document we prepared is 60-plus pages,” Dickerson said as he began the presentation, “and we are still putting together the final touches on that document…but we have enough information to give you a snap-shot of what we are proposing and at the end we're going to show you the projected budget cost for doing the project. These are not bid numbers by any contractor. These are budget numbers where we have verified that with the contracting community to see are we in the ballpark. But it's not bid numbers.

“Therefore, I'm not looking to be the low bidder. What I give you,” he told Town Council, “is not intended to be a low price. And I know (the price) will take you back a bit when you see the numbers, and I just want to prepare you for it. Again, they're budget numbers.”

Brian Cossman, Senior Project Engineer, did most of the work on the proposal and said the presentation addressed the five redesign and expansion criteria sought by the town, and went beyond, as well.

“We took the site and tried to come up with as many options as we could for lay-outs of fields, parking, and the facilities that are needed,” he told Town Council.

One of the challenges, he noted, is that “as you know the property is limited as far as space…We're in a very confined area.”

Nevertheless, the plan addresses “what other sports could you play on these fields to expand it outside of baseball,” he said.

The project cost estimates, Cossman noted, “will let you mix and match any of the fields to be grass, synthetic-any combination of that.”

The presentation also contrasted renovation of the existing concession facility or building a new and much larger facility better able to meet the public's needs.

“What we have here is kind of a menu of pretty much every possibility…a lot of possibilities of what could be done out there,” Cossman told Town Council, as they looked at the list of options. “

Lighting, fencing, landscaping, parking, everything was addressed in the Hurt & Proffitt proposal.

Commenting on prices he was showing them, Cossman said, “the prices we obtained on the synthetic (field) surfaces-it's been a little bit of a challenge from the field companies; they don't want to give us a competitive price until they know the project's really going to happen. So, as Earl mentioned, these are budget prices. We think, from what we've seen of other fields put in in the area, that the cost of just the turf itself, and the work associated with it, the prep work that would be underneath the surface, there's the potential (the price) could come down maybe 20 percent from that, just from some historic numbers we've seen out there. The prices that are shown here include all costs. There's a 10 percent contingency in there,” he said of the price, “which includes all engineering, all inspections…pretty much everything to take the job from when you say 'Go' to when it's complete and ready to use.”

The work would be scheduled to help accommodate, to interfere as little as possible with, the use of the fields.

“The main thing we're looking for from you at this point is…getting some guidance from you, look at what direction you want to take this,” Cossman said regarding the menu options.

Cossman said the $5.3 million option would be “a top of the line facility…”

Asked by council member Sally Thompson if that would be the total cost for that option, Cossman said, yes, “the total of all phases, all field upgrades, new concession areas.”

When asked by Mayor Sydnor C. Newman, Jr., how long a synthetic field lasts before needing to be replaced, Cossman said, “generally about 10 years. But a lot of that cost, the initial cost we have in the estimates for the fields, is to do the prep work, the base, the drainage…The cost is not necessarily going to be that same number to replace it when it does need to be replaced.”

Town Council was not asked to make any decisions Wednesday night.

“We realize this is a lot to put in front of you over a short period of time,” Dickerson said.

“We are going to continue working (on) the 60-page plus document…” he said, adding “we're more than happy to come back to the January meeting, at your work session to sit down and talk about what you would like to see changed, added, deleted. It's a working document. This is not a cast-in-stone document by any means.”

Again addressing the cost estimate, Dickerson said, “for all the prices we've shown you, we've talked to contractors in this central Virginia area to get their idea of a budget number they would be comfortable with. So we didn't just go out and grab these numbers out of thin air…So we feel pretty comfortable that when documents are actually bid that the bidding community, if they will stand behind what they told us, will be less than what we've shown you. We just don't know how much less.”

Asked by council member David Whitus how he saw the Town moving forward, Spates said the “important document is the overall layout. As far as figuring out what you're going to do right now, I know, you take a look at the price of the parking lot, the larger parking lot, we can do that ourselves and probably cut that cost in half. Those are things that I think that we need to gear up on right now and we can do during the off-season…”

Council member Donald Hunter suggested “looking at the list to see what the Town can do, so we'll know.”

Spates answered, “we can do a lot of it. And I think that by having the document we'll be able to go to either funding agencies or individuals who may be interested in saying, 'Okay, I'll take care of this field here.' This is what it's going to cost. You might have somebody who wants to do that.”

And the town manager added, regarding the Hurt & Proffitt master plan, “I think it gives you a tool to promote that facility.”

Town Council will consider and contemplate next steps.