Oroville >> When Riverbend Park in Oroville is rebuilt, it will look quite a bit different than it did before high water scoured it during the Oroville Dam spillway emergency.

A number of features that were destroyed or damaged by the floods will be replaced, paid for by the Feather River Recreation and Park District’s insurance, supplemented by money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

But changing building codes and an awareness it’s a good idea to work with the river, means the replacements might be in different places.

Specifically, the dog park and water play area are likely to be moved closer to the gate at the west end of Montgomery Street. One of the soccer fields may have to be replaced in a different location. And Salmon Run Road, which runs to the south end of the park, is likely to be paved.

Those were some of the highlights of a presentation by landscape architect Shawn Rohrbacker of the Melton Design Group at Tuesday’s special FRRPD board meeting. The Melton Group was hired to assess damage to the park and figure out the best way to rebuild it.

Rohrbacker ran through a litany of damage, most of which involved destruction or damage of features that had been added to the park. However the Feather River carved its bank about 10 feet toward the soccer fields, and gouged a 30-foot wide opening into one of the two ponds on the south end of the park.

That later development, “created a nice little waterfall” into the pond, it was observed, and water flowing through the pond might ease an algae problem that has occurred there.

Rohrbacker presented a concept of changes that might occur, but stressed it was just a concept rather than a developed plan.

The water play area

The fountain located in the core area of the park was ruined by the high water. The park’s core is underwater when releases are just 35,000 cubic feet per second, and flows were as high as 100,000 cfs at the height of the emergency.

The feature did not meet codes that have changed since it was developed anyway. Rebuilding it higher in the park, near the restrooms at the entrance to the park, will get it out of all but extreme high water, and allow it to be upgraded to meet the law.

The dog park

The dog park and its parking lot were covered with about a foot of silt, Rohrbacker said. That location in the south end of the park isn’t considered favorable anyway, so rebuilding it — again near the entrance to the park — could be an improvement in several ways.

He said the new park could be divided for large dogs and small dogs, with an improved surface like decomposed granite.

Salmon Run Road

The road was damaged by the high water, and the city of Oroville’s codes require it and the parking lots along it to be paved when it is rebuilt.

The insurance company is apparently in agreement.

The road accesses the area south of Highway 162, and the current thought is that might become more of a natural area, with limited active recreation features.

The soccer fields

In addition to cutting away the edge of the terrace the soccer fields are located on, the river deposited a thick layer of silt and random deposits of cobbles. The irrigation system was destroyed.

Rohrbacker said rather than scraping off the silt, bringing in a new layer of topsoil might be a better solution.

The river’s cutting may have not left enough room for one of the soccer fields to be full size. He said it might be replaced at a location south of the park entrance that the park master plan designated as a meadow.

Other parks

Bedrock Park and Palermo Park also suffered damage that needs to be repaired.

The wooden ramps on the skate and bike park at Bedrock swelled and buckled in the relentless rains of winter. And the surface of the tennis courts there bucked as the water table rose during the high river flows.

Rohrbacker said the insurance company was “on the fence” about the skate and bike park repairs.

In Palermo Park, a drainage problem damaged a playground, which will have to be replaced as it doesn’t meet code. The drainage system is also in line for an upgrade.

Who pays

Rohrbacker said the district and it insurance company were largely “on the same page” about what needed to be done. He said there was still some “back and forth” on some issues, and the firm was undecided about whether to pay for the skate and bike park repairs.

Discussions that started this month with FEMA about what costs the federal disaster agency can cover went smoothly he said, and that it looks like it will pay for most of what the insurance won’t.

The repairs at Riverbend are put at $10.5 million. The Bedrock skate and bike park repairs will be about $50,000, and the tennis courts will need $40,000-$70,000 depending on whether they can be repaired on need to be replaced. Palermo Park will take another $125,000.

Reach City Editor Steve Schoonover at 896-7750.