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Back in August, Buckingham County staff started working on some repairs and renovations at Gene Dixon Park. But while doing so, they discovered the concession stand is a bit more damaged than originally thought. 

“If you’ve been down there lately, you know it’s started to sink,” Buckingham County Administrator Karl Carter told supervisors during their Dec. 9 meeting. “Once it started to sink, it started to put cracks in the walls and looks terrible.” 

The problem is the soil underneath the building has become unstable, which is causing the concession stand to sink. County staff collected three proposals for companies to come in and stabilize the building, with the goal of preventing any further damage. 

“After going through the proposals, we are recommending JES to perform the work,” Carter wrote in his presentation. “Factors that led to our decision were JES has a flat or non-variable rate when it comes to getting down to a depth that has good soil. Another vendor would only go to a certain depth and then charge for each foot below that depth. The other issue that is in JES’s favor is a warranty of vertical stabilization for the life of the structure after installation of the piers.” 

The proposal from Richmond-based JES came out to $40,928.12. To be clear, this isn’t new money. These are funds already set aside for that purpose, in Buckingham’s Gene Dixon Reserve. Each work project just has to be signed off on. That’s what supervisors did on Dec. 9, unanimously approving the money to be allocated for fixing the concession stand. 

Back in August, supervisors approved $116,000 to do other repairs at the park, including replacing bleachers that are becoming a safety hazard, fixing a leaky roof and removing a tree at the soccer fields causing problems. They also approved funds to pay for excavation work to help redirect standing water and prevent damage from water running down the hill.