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[Southsider2k12]

For those who haven't gotten up to the lakefront this year, I took some pictures up there to see how the progress was going on both of these things.

The Oasis Splash Pad looks like it held up well in my very non-professional opinion. I saw no cracks of any kind in the concrete up there, so hopefully that means we get to see it open on the May/June schedule they were hoping for last year.

The Foreman Amphitheater looks like it is coming along nicely. Some things that jumped out at me were the new handicapped accessible ramp that was installed to enter the stage, and the walkway that was put in down the grassy section above the seating area. The new work looks nice to me.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=pr...3874&ref=mf

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2010/0...ed556068388.txt

Two opposing views to the amphitheater upgrades

Dave Hawk/The News-Dispatch A view of the work under way Wednesday at the Guy F. Foreman Bicentennial Amphitheatre.
By Matt Field
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, April 22, 2010 4:15 AM CDT
MICHIGAN CITY — The Parks and Recreation Department superintendent says a newly renovated Washington Park amphitheater still can host the popular Smooth Jazz at South Shore event.

The concert’s founder says the $460,000 project to be completed June 1 needs to be scrapped and redesigned.

So while parks superintendent Jan Orlich and Smooth Jazz founder Bernie Scott seem to have irreconcilable differences, councilman Bob McKee hopes to find common ground.

“I don’t view it as a total disaster,” McKee said after visiting the amphitheater Wednesday. “I’m not sure I would have designed it the way they did ... I think it’s certainly a salvageable thing.”

The councilman will have his work cut out for him Friday when he’ll meet with Smooth Jazz organizers and other city and park officials.

Scott and other concert organizers made forceful speeches to McKee and others at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, saying the renovations, specifically a snaking access ramp for people with disabilities, take up too much space and would lead to the concert losing as much as $25,000 in ticket sales. Orlich said at the meeting concert organizers were wildly overestimating the number of lost seats.

Planning for the amphitheater began in January 2009, Orlich said, and included several public meetings. Scott and other organizers should have raised objections to the planned renovations at the meetings, she said, not a month before the nearly $500,000 project is scheduled to be complete.

Orlich said if concert organizers needed more seating, bleachers could be set up in a parking lot used for concession. The handicapped ramp, which winds through a lawn seating and into the amphitheater, won’t displace as many seats as the organizers fear.

“They didn’t lose that many seats,” Orlich said Wednesday, “and we’re taking a look at the financials, and they might have had 1,800 to 2,000 people.

Orlich said the snaking ramp was designed that way out of necessity to meet handicapped accessibility standards given the steep grade of the amphitheater.

“Not once have (the organizers) contacted ... board members or myself to see if they could even view any of plans,“ Orlich said.

Scott said his organization was never invited to the public meetings where the plans were discussed.

“It’s such a terrible costly mistake to the community,” he said, “and it’s not beautiful anymore, and the community as a whole has a right to be very, very upset with this design.”

Scott wants the whole renovation redone. He hopes some changes can be made in time for the August concert, or his group will lose a lot of seating.

“The ramp has to be taken out completely,” he said. “ ... The entire amphitheater seating from the stage back is ruined. And to fix it, it has to be taken out and redone completely.”

Scott scoffed at the idea of seating people in bleachers.

“This is a high-end event, a first-class event,” he said, “and you don’t set up bleachers.”

Scott said the organizers don’t know what to do about their situation, but said the show will go on this year. He did not rule out finding another venue.

“If it goes out of town, it’s going to stay out of town,” he said.

[Tim]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2010/0...ed556068388.txt

So - you've been down there, right? What would you estimate the number of lost seats to actually be? !000 seems unrealistic.

[Southsider2k12]

So - you've been down there, right? What would you estimate the number of lost seats to actually be? !000 seems unrealistic.

I'm no seating expert, but I think a thousand people is ridiculous.

[Tim]

I'm no seating expert, but I think a thousand people is ridiculous.

So what's your best guestimate?