The wheels are in motion for new playground equipment at Centennial Park, but it won’t be for a few months.
The old structure was destroyed by arson late last month. The decision to purchase an immediate interim replacement was denied at a City of Duncan special council meeting on Thursday. The motion would have diverted $11,000 from the Gas Tax reserve in favour of a smaller piece of equipment that could be in place for this summer, while the city waited to source another larger, long-term piece.
Councillor Jenni Capps says the decision is instead to not rush and instead wait to find the best long-term replacement.
“I feel like it might be worth waiting and making sure that we come back with something that’s really great, that’s fully accessible, that’s better than we had before,” she says.
Another argument against adding a piece in the short term comes from City Director of Public Works and Engineering Brian Murphy, who says looking for a quick delivery added to the costs.
“We’ve been looking around. Don’t have anything that fits with the budget here on short notice. There are lots of options that have a 12-week delivery,” says Murphy. “But our first goal was to find something that’s available now and haven’t been successful.”
The city did have an insurance policy on the playground, which will fund a replacement structure after a $10,000 deductible is paid.
Murphy says they’re still working on getting the site cleaned up before they can get looking at installing a new structure. They’ve only now gotten the green light from the insurance company to let a contractor start that work.
“Hopefully the remediation can happen in the next weeks, subject to the contractor’s actual availability,” he says.
“We’ve been looking, it’s far more complicated than I thought it would be,” says Murphy. “There are lots of options, but they mostly come with that 12-week lead time.”
Capps says there is still a lot open at the park for kids to enjoy, which can allow them not to rush.
“We were pleasantly surprised that there are still many parts of the surrounding playground area that you can still utilize,” says Capps who visited the park with her daughter recently.
The city is also are thinking about using fundraising to supplement the existing budget for the project.
“Immediately after the vandalism occurred, I saw a lot of people online saying that they would like to contribute,” says Capps. “I heard resoundingly an enthusiasm that people would like to financially contribute […] Not to expect that, or place that on people, but to find a way to allow that for part of the expense because there was a real willingness to be a part of this.”
The idea was also bandied that once some options for a permanent replacement are found, they will allow the public to decide which one they would like to buy.
“What I would really like to see once we are able to look over some of the options is a consultation including children in the community,” says Capps. “I just think that would be really cool to do and to make them feel included.”
Mayor Michelle Staples says the biggest thing she would like to see happen in a hurry is the clean-up of the site.
She says, “I’d rather just have it cleaned up so people can use it without having this big monolith of chainlink to play around.”
Staples also proposed the idea of putting some signage at the site to remind people that a plan is in the works to replace the equipment.
