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Residents are still pushing back on parts of the City-Brooks Park plan as costs climb
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BATON ROUGE — The budget for planning a renovation of City-Brooks Park has grown to more than $640,000 after the BREC Commission agreed to pay its design firm an additional $40,045.
The commission voted last week to give Sasaki, the company behind the renovation plans, the extra money to cover additional public meetings and stakeholder sessions.
Not everyone on the commission was on board with the added cost. BREC Commissioner Wade Evans said he had reservations about how the project has been funded from the start.
"I'm on record as not supporting BREC underwriting this fully in the beginning, and I'm going to continue to express my displeasure for BREC being the one that underwrote this whole project," Evans said.
Even so, Evans ultimately voted in favor of the additional payment. Zachary Mayor David McDavid and Central mayoral candidate Lon Vicknair were the only two commissioners to vote against giving Sasaki more money.
BREC Commission Chair Michael Polito said the spending was worth it.
"They've done the work, and quite frankly I think it was important that we did it," Polito said. "I think we've actually gained a lot of information from the latest public meetings."
Some residents still have concerns about what the final plan will look like. Baton Rouge resident Liz Stuart Centanni raised questions about the golf course.
"The golf course needs to stay in its current footprint," Centanni said. "We can't afford for them to chop off hole five, half of hole four."
BREC Superintendent Dr. Brooks Williams released the following statement:
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