As Silverthorne looks to update its playground equipment, the town is also planning to develop a new park and rehab another one.

Plans and design drawings for River’s Edge Park are being finalized and bid packets prepared for contractors to vie for the chance to construct the park.

Located in the wedge of land between the Blue River and Highway 9, the park would extend from the Rainbow Drive intersection with Highway 9 to the southern edge of the Town Center commercial development.

Neils Lunceford is doing the design. The bid process will likely begin within the next month.

The plan is to get the park built this summer, Silverthorne community development director Mark Leidal said.

“It’s an area that can’t have any development on it, per se, so we’re looking to enhance that area,” Leidal said. “The primary thing is to move the sidewalk from the highway, and make it a more pedestrian-friendly experience … and also to get them down to the river for a picnic or (to see) interpretive signage.”

It wouldn’t be a highly developed park, Leidal clarified. It’s primarily open space meant to circulate pedestrians as well as continue to draw attention to the Blue River and away from the highway. However, it has been identified as a site for the inaugural art installation of the town’s new public art committee.

The project budget is $200,000, which includes design.

North of the downtown core, North Pond Park is getting some attention in its sunken wetlands.

“There was a wetland that failed from 10 years ago from The Ponds (development),” Leidal said. “The Army Corps (of Engineers) released that site from being a required wetland, so the town decided to fill in that wetland area … to allow any uses proposed in the future.”

Roughly 10,000 cubic yards of fill is being trucked into the site from the Angler Mountain Ranch development, where developer Tim Crane is creating the framework for a road connecting his property to the Hamilton Creek neighborhood for secondary egress for both areas.

Silverthorne public works is also doing work on the docks adjacent to the North Pond Park warming hut.