HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2016-10-05, Page 22 News Record • Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Parks discussion a big topic at Central Huron strategic planning meeting
Justine Alkema Clinton News Record
Clinton Community Park.
Justine Alkema
Clinton News Record
Central Huron council had
a long discussion at their
strategic planning meeting
on September 26 regarding
the skate park/splash pad/
playground equipment
group's effort to improve the
Clinton Community Park.
The committee was look-
ing to council for direction
on a timeline and financial
expectations.
First, council discussed
the splash pad in length.
Community Improvement
Coordinator Angela Smith
told council that she had
been to over 25 splash pads,
observing what worked and
what didn't and asking ques-
tions to parents, kids and
management regarding their
splash pads.
She was able to draw a
few conclusions from this.
First, she noted that while
parents seemed to like the
look of play structures on
splash pads, she didn't
observe many kids actually
playing with them. She
found that kids didn't like
water falling down on them
from overhead. Instead,
they were more interested
with jets shooting up from
the ground that they could
try to cover, run through,
etc.
She said the only struc-
tures kids seemed to really
like were water canyons to
shoot each other with and a
dumping bucket because of
the anticipation of it.
The other downside of
structures is kids run into
them, making them a safety
issue.
One thing she recom-
mended was AquaFlex, a
softer surface to put on the
splash pad that is a safety
feature. Instead of having
kids run on slippery con-
crete, they can run on this
much safer surface. That
way when they fall, they are
much less likely to hurt
themselves.
One manager com-
mented to Smith that "in a
city, you will never see
another concrete splash
pad installed again."
However AquaFlex
comes with a price of over
$40,000. For this reason,
many splash pads in the
area, including in Bayfield,
don't have AquaFlex.
However having struc-
tures, which Smith recom-
mended against, is also
around $40,000. For this
reason, she suggested
having AquaFlex but no
structures.
While council seemed to
agree with her assessment,
it is ultimately up to the
parks committee to make
that decision.
Part of the meeting
included coming up with
price estimates and goals.
With recommendations
from Smith and Facilities
Manager Steve Campbell,
they estimated the cost of
the splash pad to be around
$157,000.
$157,000 will either cover
an AquaFlex splash pad
with no structures or a con-
crete splash pad with struc-
tures. The other option is to
have no structures or
AquaFlex and pay $110,000.
It was mentioned that the
difficulty in building this
kind of infrastructure is it
can be made to any scale,
as large or small as the
group desires. It all comes
down to what the group is
willing to spend, which
comes down to how much
they can fundraise.
They also discussed using
flow through vs. recycled
water. While council agreed
recycled water is a nicer
idea, it would also cost
$100,000 more than flow
through water, and require
much more maintenance.
For these reasons, they
agreed that flow through
makes more sense.
The new play equipment
will come at a much smaller
price. After some discussion,
council came up with the
estimate of $30,000. What
this could include could vary
according to which items
were chosen.
There was some discus-
sion about there being natu-
ral playground items such as
rocks and logs which would
be less expensive as well.
Council factored in
$150,000 for the skate park.
After that, there was talk of
putting a pavilion in the
space as well, which they
estimated at $50,000.
All of these things came to
a rough estimate of $400,000.
With that knowledge,
council came up with a goal
for the groups - to raise
$150,000 by May 1, 2017. On
top of that, the group already
has private pledges for
funds, and $60,000 from
council.
They are hoping to start
construction can next
summer.
All of this information
went back to the parks com-
mittee as a place to start,
whether or not they alter
some of council's sugges-
tions about the nature of the
equipment.
Mayor Ginn commented
that these numbers are
mostly targets to get started
with. It's to give a ball park of
expectations.
Now that the group knows
more about council's expec-
tations, they can use that as a
mind set for fundraising.
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY MONDAY OCTOBER 10
for
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Ottife
Albert
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Clinton
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