Monitor Photo/Di Johnson
Councilman Mike Dumont presents the architect’s rendering of the Eight at Tool Park at the meeting June 15.

Monitor Photo/Di Johnson
The rendering of the Eight at Tool Park highlights many features for the community to enjoy, including walking trails, musical playground equipment and a nature preserve.

TOOL– At the Tool City Council meeting June 15, Councilman Mike Dumont presented a major update on the Eight at Tool Park, providing architect’s renderings, a line-by-line listing of current expense bids and a timeline of events in the planning process.
In December, the City of Tool received a bid of $1.9 million for work necessary to complete the park, not including subcontractors or hardware for subcontractors’ use. City leaders announced that with the city’s budget of $1.5 million, City Administrator Julius Kizzee, Councilman Greg Figueroa and Dumont were forced to “go back to the drawing board” to determine which parts of the original plan were most beneficial to the community while ensuring the plan still meets Texas Parks and Wildlife Department standards. This also meant searching for new bidders.
In February, the city received the first bid from a company called Whirlix. This bid included a price of $600,000 for the splash pad. Given the cost of water and electricity, along with the potential liability of the city, the council determined the splash pad was a non-starter and opted to install sports/pickleball courts instead for a cost of $210,000.
The next bid received from Whirlix was incomplete, not containing landscaping, grading, irrigation, drainage, parking lot, pond construction, bathroom plumbing and electrical installation costs. The council received a bid from Raymond Concrete for parking and grading. During this time, the city also found a lower-cost option for playground equipment, taking the price down to $215,000 from the original $408,400.
Since March, Dumont, Figueroa and Kizzee have worked tirelessly to ensure the price of the park could be met by the city. Dumont has given countless hours to the project and says that he is now at a point where the city can meet specifically to discuss the park details before the city’s budget meeting.
After receiving bids for the missing items in the previous documents, the price of the park now sits at approximately $2 million. This price includes all necessary work on the land and utilities, as well as the actual park fixtures such as the playground, amphitheater, dog park, sports courts, fishing pond, veteran memorial and other items.
Donations have been earmarked by local organizations for the park, but city officials are still working out financial details. The total amount of money received and promised is still approximately $400,000 less than the total cost of the park. Figueroa says he is working diligently to bring these figures closer together and make the dream a reality.
“There was a lot of work that had to be done. We lost our contractor… Mike has spent a lot of time, and I’ve been on different calls,” said Figueroa. “We are further along than we’ve ever been.” Officials say that if things run smoothly with the remainder of the planning process, locals may be able to enjoy the park this time next year.