It’s official now, plans for renovating the Wayland City Park, including a splash pad for kids now have the target date for completion set at May 20, 2016.

City Manager Mike Selden Monday night told the City Council that bids finally will be let on the work for installing new equipment and the deadline will be Thursday, Aug. 27. He added that council should be ready to vote on bids at its Tuesday, Sept. 8, meeting.

Selden is asking the Planning Commission to have a joint meeting with the council at 6 p.m. that evening. The session would be held on the evening the commission normally would meet, but the council’s regularly scheduled Sept. 7 meeting would have to move to Sept. 8 because of Labor Day.

The city manager proposes to have the joint meeting at 6 p.m. and the council meeting at 7.

Local officials explained that the delay in the project was due to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources only last month signing off on a $45,000 grant to fund improvements for the park. The renovations also include  resurfacing of the basketball court and providing new playground equipment.

The grant application was approved last December.

Local officials had hoped to have the splash pad new equipment ready by late summer 2015, but the wheels of funding turned too slowly.