Grant fuels playground project

Friday, June 10, 2005 3:00 PM PDT

JESSICA KELLER ARGUS OBSERVER

ONTARIO

The Ontario Parks and Recreation Department recently received a grant to replace playground equipment at Beck Kiwanis Park.

The $13,135 grant from the Oregon Land and Water Conservation Fund board will be used to complete the first of a two-phase project that will update the playground at the popular Ontario park. Ash Grove Cement also committed to donating $5,000 for the project.

Ontario Parks and Recreation Director Kathy Daly said the current, wooden equipment at Beck Kiwanis Park is old. City workers already have removed sections of the play set because it was falling apart and unsafe, Daly said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Daly, who is on the Oregon Land and Water Conservation Board, applied for the grant in April. She had to temporarily step down from the board to apply for the grant.

"I was kind of a good thing because I knew what things they were looking for when filling out the grant application," Daly said. Of the 12 agencies, Daly said, Ontario was second on the list to receive funding. When the state wrote its parks and recreation master plan, Eastern Oregon was identified as an area most in need of new or rehabilitated outdoor recreation facilities, which Daly said makes Ontario more eligible for grant funding.

The project, however, cannot begin for some time, as the city has not received the funds yet, and Daly does not anticipate work to begin until April 2006.

In addition to this grant, Daly applied for maintenance and construction assistance for the new playground from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Association, but she said she has not received word whether Ontario will receive the help.

The current grant monies will allow for the purchase of half the playground equipment at the park, which Daly said will have new, modern structures.

The first-phase equipment will include a balcony deck with wheel, another deck, a "slidewinder" slide with safety hood, cliff climber, loop ladder, firepole, talk tube, navigator panel and more features.

The second-phase equipment will be another structure that includes a clatterbridge, "double swoosh" slide with safety hood, chimney climber, chinning bar and more. Daly said unless the funds for the second structure, which will cost more than $20,000, are raised in the meantime, she will apply for a second grant from the Oregon Land and Water Conservation Fund board next year. The Ontario Parks and Recreation Department is currently accepting donations for the second half of the project.