Murrysville officials pleased with second round of proposals for amphitheater project

Murrysville recreation officials will look at a second round of responses on Thursday to their request for a consultant to help conceptualize a park amphitheater project.

Council and staff are looking to use a $299,000 state grant to help fund an amphitheater and performance space on 4.5 acres at Murrysville Community Park off Wiestertown Road.

The municipality received 10 responses, with costs ranging between $9,500 and $36,000.

“We had more submissions than a year ago, and we were happy to see renewed, and new, interest from consultants,” recreation Director Carly Greene said.

Chief Administrator Jim Morrison said the majority of the proposals, which came from a variety of bidders including civil engineers, architecture and landscape architecture firms, average between $20,000 and $25,000.

“That seems to be the sweet spot, which is about what we anticipated,” he said. “I’m leaning toward a more conceptual, artsy type of professional, because that’s what we’re looking for from that site. So I’m glad we got the range of proposals that we did.”

The recreation department is considering a pre-fabricated amphitheater by North Carolina-based Enwood, a model called the “Apex,” which can be built in a variety of configurations.

The goal is to break ground by late spring or early summer, Greene told council in January.

The grant must be spent by the end of 2022.

“There’s a lot of wonderful information and great ideas here,” Greene said of taking a quick look through the proposals. “We’re going to have a very interesting meeting (Thursday) looking at which direction we want to go.”