With the recently renovated playground at Tecumseh Park, the number of accessible playgrounds in the City of Sarnia is up to two.
With the recently renovated playground at Tecumseh Park, the number of accessible playgrounds in the City of Sarnia is now up to two.
That number is expected to rise in coming years, pending developments like potential Centennial Park changes as per the city’s waterfront master plan and the master plan being prepared for Germain Parksaid interim park and facility operations eat Krissy Glavin.
“We’re trying to focus on those larger district parks,” she said about where city officials have been targeting accessibility improvements to play structures to make them easier for people with wheelchairs, strollers and other mobility needs to navigate.
In 2018, city officials laid out a list of park candidates that included bigger “district” locales like Canatara, Centennial, Germain and Mike Weir parks, alongside others.
Rotary clubs helped back a $335,000 accessible playground that opened in Canatara Park in 2019 as the city’s first, while the Tecumseh Park playground upgrades completed earlier this year – part of larger park improvements still underway – were covered with a $241,000 Investing in Canada Infrastructure program grant, city officials said.
Mike Weir Park, along with Germain and Centennial, could be up next for accessible equipment, including ramps, various activities reachable from different heights, and rubberized surface around the structure, in the years to come, Glavin said.
“We’re trying to build a good, solid capital plan around playground equipment replacement,” said Glavin.
But first, city officials are dealing with a backlog of more basic equipment replacement needs, she noted.
“Parks where we’ve had older swings or slides pulled out of” that were deemed unsafe or in need of replacing as part of regular inspections, she said.
A $242,000 contract with Park N Play to fix those sorts of deficiencies at Hanna, Mike Weir, St. Albans and Marcin parks was recently approved through city procurement, and hopes are work will be finished later this month, Glavin said.
“Assuming the delivery of the equipment comes on time.”
It’s also hoped a couple more parks are added to the docket for basic equipment replacement before the end of the year, she said.
“To be honest, there is quite a bit” to do at various parks, she said.
The bulk of the cost in the August Park N Play contract is for Marcin Park.
That $157,000 job includes fully replacing the playground equipment there, for which the city received a $25,000 anonymous donation, Glavin said, “which we graciously accepted.”
The replacement equipment won’t be accessible, she said.
“Like I said, we’re trying to focus on those larger district parks,” she said.
All recent playground projects dating back to the Canatara accessible playground have been completed by Park N Play, via a group buying agreement through Kinetic GPO that Sarnia procurement manager Shawn Unsworth said reduces staff time and overall cost.
Future playground projects are expected to go through the same process, Glavin said.
“We love to bring some excitement to playgrounds, to kids, to communities … so we’re excited and hope to continue down this path of regular replacement and updates where we can,” she said.