HUNTINGTON BEACH : Contractor Removed From Park Project

Two months after awarding a contract to a developer to build a play area in Huntington Central Park for handicapped children, the City Council has removed the firm from the project.

The change of contractors means the playground will not be finished until late October, said Jim Engle, the city’s superintendent of recreation and park development. Under the original plans, the play area was scheduled to be ready this summer.

Council members this week removed Artistic Landscape from the job because the firm planned to build a floating fishing dock on Huntington Lake instead of a stationary dock, as city officials had requested.

“Obviously, the handicapped cannot safely use a floating dock,” officials wrote in a report to the council on the issue.

The firm said it could not build a fixed dock within the approved budget, so council members have hired Hondo Co., the second-lowest bidder, to do the work.

Hondo will construct the facility for $167,300, more than $20,000 higher than the originally approved cost. A $100,000 state grant will pay for most of the project. The remainder will be paid from the city’s park development fund, a variety of grants separate from the general fund.

Along with the fishing dock, the Huntington Central Park play area will include a picnic area, barbecue facilities and play equipment. All of the area will be wheelchair-accessible.

The facility, however, is designed to attract both handicapped and non-handicapped children, who are often segregated in play activities, Engle said.

“This will be one place where the handicapped can mainstream with the general population,” he said.