Officials with the City of Gering are working on a plan to secure funding for the first part of a two or three-phase project to provide upgrades to Five Rocks Amphitheater.
The county’s Tourism Committee last week recommended that the County Board approve a $100,000 grant from the lodging Capital Improvement fund, which would cover close to half of the estimated cost of phase 1.
Gering City Engineer Annie Folck explained the primary goal of the project is gaining more robust ADA compliance at the facility. “For ADA, we’re supposed to have fully-accommodating paths for every portion of an event. So that’s from the parking to the seating, to the bathrooms, to the food trucks, all of it has to be tied together so people can get there safely so we’re not excluding people, whether it’s graduation, or Oregon Trail Days or any other those other events. We need to make sure we’re accommodating anyone who might want to attend, and right now, it doesn’t have that,” Folck said.
Gering Visitors Bureau Director Karla Niedan-Streeks said the project would provide more than improved ADA accommodations.
“We’re seeing more and more events that are growing, that use Five Rocks Amphitheater, and they’re using the connectivity between Kahuna Park (immediately to the east) and Five Rocks proper,” said Niedan-Streeks, “and all of these improvements, in addition to the ADA upgrades, are really going to create a much more flow and connectivity between those two facilities.”
The first phase would also provide enough hard surfacing to host food trucks at events, and one or two additional phases would incorporate fully accessible ADA parking and drop-off/pickup areas.
County Commissioners expressed support for the plan but rejected the initial funding recommendation, asking tourism and city officials to first seek private-sector buy-in and then come back at a future meeting for further consideration.
