Photo courtesy of Todd Draper Construction crews put the roof on the new main picnic shelter at Garvin Park this week.

MARSHALL — It took a long time to plan, but improved buildings at Garvin Park are finally taking shape this week.

“Things are going fast,” Lyon County Environmental Administrator Roger Schroeder said Thursday. “It looks like they’re about done with assembling the main picnic shelter.”

A bigger picnic shelter is just one of the updates under construction at Garvin Park this fall. Schroeder said the project also includes new picnic shelters at other spots in the park, and updated restrooms. Foundations for the new restrooms were also going in on Thursday, he said.

Schroeder said the new main picnic shelter is bigger than the old one, measuring 30 by 66 feet. In addition, it will have open patio space and a pergola, as well as pavement connections to the main Garvin Park playground.

The construction work is part of a project that has been in the works for a couple of years. In 2021, Lyon County received more than $1.1 million in Legacy Grant funding for buildings like the new picnic shelters and restrooms.

All the updates were replacements or improvements on existing structures at Garvin Park, Schroeder said.

“One of the pillars for the Legacy Grant is taking care of what we have,” he said.

Construction of the updates hit some delays this spring when bids for items like concrete came in much higher than expected. The county responded by cutting parking lot resurfacing out of the project, and reducing some of the concrete work.

Schroeder said about one-fifth of the concrete work in the original construction plan was reduced.

“That’s at several different locations,” he said.

For example, the patio space around the main shelter will be smaller than first planned. Schroeder also said that, instead of using Legacy Grant funds to re-surface the parking lot in the main picnic area, they would work together with the Lyon County Highway Department to see if it could be included in a county road maintenance project.

Some of the other park updates being worked on this fall include a new picnic shelter near the park’s main entrance, and a new shelter replacing the River Shelter picnic shelter that had collapsed last winter, Schroeder said. Some of the updated restrooms will include new vault toilets near the warming house, the lower campground, the ballfield area, and near the main picnic shelter.

Schroeder said the toilets near the main picnic shelter will be a new addition, that will make that part of the park more accessible for visitors. Before, park visitors in the main picnic and playground area had to head toward the lower campground to use the restrooms there, he said.

Schroeder said the concrete work around the new main picnic shelter would likely be done by the end of September or in October. Some of the updated restrooms won’t be open until next spring, however.

Being able to get construction started after the summer camping season was over was a positive for the project — as was the streak of clear weather the area has had, Schroeder said.

“I don’t think it could have worked out any better,” he said.