Arlington Park Finally Back Open After Safety Concerns

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ARLINGTON (CBS 11 News) - Arlington is taking the locks off a $2 million parks expansion in Arlington that was finished, but off limits for months. The city had closed two softball fields and a pavilion at Vandergriff Park after possible concerns about the safety of their construction.

Softball teams from the Arlington Girls Softball Association were set to use the two fields Monday night, to complete their fall season.

The re-opening came after board members and parents said there had been little news from the city about why the fields weren't usable, other than there was a permitting issue. Teams had expected to be able to use the fields for the growing league, as early as last fall.

Parks director Lemuel Randolph said after construction, the city could not verify that light poles and structures had been installed correctly. During a number of steps where an inspector was required to be on site, he said, one wasn't there.

Mart Inc., the contractor on the project, said an inspector was on site and that the city lost thousands of pictures of the construction process. The city confirmed the pictures were lost, but said it was up to the contractor to document the process, and obtain individual permits and inspections for different parts of the construction process.

The process of proving the work was done right, took months. The city council first approved the project in January 2014.

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