The Town Council received a presentation regarding Funway Playground on Nelson Road during its May 20 meeting.
They received a briefing from Assistant Recreation Director, Doug Cole, that the playground has been brought up for being in need of updates “as well as issues that have been brought up to our department’s attention.”
Administrative Support Coordinator, Kirsten Hildonen, said that they reached out to Primex, who have a certified playground inspector on staff, and she came out to do a playground inspection with them on April 29.
“Overall she had an extremely favorable opinion of the playground. She said it was great,” Hildonen said, explaining that almost everything was in good shape.
Moving forward, Hildonen stated that they are going to work with Primex on an annual basis to have inspections done, and then respond to their feedback each year. She also noted that staff would be doing monthly inspections, and will address issues that come about, such as graffiti.
Cole said they were looking to make a number of short term repairs to the playground, following the inspection being completed, to include bench repairs, which have already been completed.
For equipment, he said they were looking to replace two climbers, which are $2,500 each, and the yellow rocker, which is $4,500.
To make repairs to the fence/gate, it will be approximately $1,350.
The other item they are looking to do is to make repairs to the playground surfacing, which would cost $8,184 if they have a company spread it, versus $3,500 if they are able to get enough volunteers to do it.
Cole stated that in their budget, they were able to afford 60 yards of surfacing material, but they need 175 more yards to meet the state and national standards.
“We are going to work to align our budget with the actual cost of our maintenance as we look ahead next year,” Cole said.
The plan is to also have annual cleanups at the park during the spring and the fall, in order to give people a chance to volunteer who may not be able to do so otherwise, Hildonen explained.
It was noted by Hildonen that they haven’t set a date for their spring clean up, noting that they wanted to see if the Town Council would approve letting them go with the spread option or not, that it would impact when it would make sense to have the cleanup day.
In total, the projects would cost between $14,350 and $19,044.
Assistant Town Manager, Kellie Caron, stated that they were recommending use of up to $20,000 in American Rescue Plan Act Funds.
The Town Council ultimately gave its blessing to allow up to $20,000 in ARPA funds to be spent on the project, with the preferred option to have volunteers help with the spread in order to have the cheapest option. The up to $20,000 amount would allow them to move forward with paying to have it spread if they need to.
Moving forward, Cole said they want to hear about any concerns people have about recreation in town, saying that people can either contact the Recreation Department directly, or by attending a Recreation Commission meeting.
“You see a problem, we want to know,” Cole said.