In January, the Wellington Town Board hired a Fort Collins urban design firm to lay out a plan for the future of a community park.

Wellington will pay BHA Design Inc. $135,000 for Phase I of the Buffalo Creek Park design, which is about 50 percent of the planning work.

So far Buffalo Creek Park, located between Boxelder Creek and Buffalo Creek subdivision in northwest Wellington, consists of a batting cage and a BMX bike track (for nonmotorized vehicles) accessible via a bridge over the creek. Residents sometimes walk dogs in the area.

According to its web site (www.bhadesign.com), BHA has been in business since 1993. It has worked on projects for the cities of Fort Collins, Loveland and Longmont and with YMCA of the Rockies, among others.

“We are currently in the very early stages of the project, collecting background information and refining the schedule,” said David Kasprzak with BHA.

Kasprzak will be helping to develop preliminary concepts during the next two to four weeks. “I anticipate having concepts ready for review by the town around mid-March,” he added.

Hydro Construction, a firm that made improvements to the Wellington water and wastewater treatment plant during the early 1990s, volunteered the equipment and labor to layout the BMX track — a varied topography runway for children on bikes using pedal-powered locomotion.

According to its web site (www.hydroconstruction.com), the Fort Collins company strives to “develop and execute ways of giving back to the community” through its charitable fund.

The town spent $226,700 from its own budget for the batting cages.

Town administrator Larry Lorentzen said that the town will need to pursue grant money for the complete development of Buffalo Creek Park. The town’s commitment to starting a professional design should help when seeking competitive grants, and a grant could cover the remaining half of design work.