WOODBINE — Krimgold Park in Woodbine can now have its groundbreaking with the Board of County Commissioners' awarding this week of a bid to build the first phase of the park.

On March 4, the commissioners voted 2-0 to award the bid of $3 million to Cromer Construction, a Forest Hill-based company.

The park is now set to break ground in mid-April, said Scott Moser, bureau chief of building construction for Carroll County government.

Weather depending, the first phase of the park should be open in 2011.

The park will feature five soccer/multipurpose fields, four baseball/softball diamonds, open areas, picnic shelters, trails, fishing ponds and about 475 parking spaces. More than 100 acres would be open space parkland.

On Sept. 23, 2009, the county received 19 bids ranging from $3.78 million to $6.4 million, and officially rejected all of those bids Oct. 20 — in part because the county wanted to bid the project in phases, instead of the entire 140-acre project.

Planned traffic improvement costs also dictated building the park in two phases.

In light of the state's fiscal situation, the county's budget office recommended that the project be reduced by $900,000.

Planning for the park began in the late 1990s, and the county purchased the property in 2002. The park, at 5355 Woodbine Road, had been budgeted at $5.8 million overall for the two phases.

Most of the money ($4.8 million) has been allocated in the county's budget through prior years, including $969,000 in the current budget.

About 90 percent of the park's price was funded through Program Open Space. That state program is funded through a transfer tax on home sales and pays for parks throughout Maryland, but sometimes money is not provided to the county until the following year and can be reduced.

Traffic improvements include creation of an entrance onto Woodbine Road, as well as construction acceleration and deceleration lanes and a bypass lane on the park's west side. Engineers estimate that road work to cost about $500,000, Moser said.

Phase two improvements include Buckhorn and Woodbine road improvements and adding right-turn lanes and a left-turn/through lane to Woodbine and Salem Bottom roads.

Krimgold Bidders

Eleven companies submitted bids for Krimgold Park in a re-bid advertisement. Bids from 19 companies were rejected in October because the county reduced the project's budget. These bids are for the park's first phase:

Cromer Construction -- $2,998,423 (winning bid)

Kinsley Construction -- $3,235,000

York Excavating Co. Inc. -- $3,260,000

Gray & Son Inc. -- $3,380,000

Stambaughs Inc. -- $3,426,394

American Infrastructure -- $3,611,611

CJ Miller LLC -- $3,650,000

Dixie Construction Co. Inc. -- $3,778,000

Liberty Excavators Inc. -- $4,104,900

Pleasants Construction -- $4,451,250

Wastler Construction -- $4,664,361

Source: County Bureau of Purchasing

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