Haysboro park redevelopment is facing a funding setback
Haysboro mother Sonja Sahlen and the committee she heads have been redesigning their local park since November 2013, when the city decided it needed refurbishment.
A matter of weeks before the planned groundbreaking, however, the project now faces a difficult obstacle: The community couldn’t raise enough money to cover the first phase of redevelopment.
Now, Sahlen and the committee must move some elements to the second phase or find more funds as they move ahead with construction.
“I used to work in the oil and gas industry, so that was my go to,” Sahlen said. “But they don’t have money right now. They’re holding back their budgets quite tightly, and fair enough ... It was just bad timing for us, the economy, for everything.”
The city usually allocates $ 35,000 to replace aging playgrounds piece for piece. However, communities have the option to redesign with the city’s help.
“Often the community says, ‘ No, we’d really like to have some more input. We’d like to build this thing out much bigger.’ Then we continue to work with them in terms of who they should link with ... to increase and leverage their dollars and our dollars to get something more on their design preferences,” said Ron Neff, the parks community strategist for the area.
The design that Sahlen and her committee came up with for the Haysboro Community Association is different than the average. They want to use natural materials and green spaces, allowing more opportunities for imaginative play that research says is better for children’s development.
The plans feature a slide built into a hill, a garden, a farmhouse and an obstacle course. Many have ambiguous purposes, leaving room for improvisation.
“The kid determines what it is. It’s not the play piece setting limits,” said Sahlen. “If you’re creating a stage, you’re creating endless play … every kid brings something new to it.”
The green spaces in particular are targeted at all age groups, which the committee hopes will give the entire community a place to gather. The idea has received tens of thousands of dollars of support from neighbourhood fundraising events alone.
The current playground has the requisite metal swings and slides, decorated with chipping primarycoloured paint. But for the families who come to it, those don’t seem to be the main attraction.
“It’s like, ‘ Do we have to play on the play structures?’” said Kourtney Branagan, another member of the committee, as she watched her young daughters abandon the slide to join their friends in a nearby patch of trees.
The park was built in the 1950s. Sahlen’s husband, James, played there as a kid. She said it’s served Haysboro well, but the groundbreaking for a new park will go ahead on June 7.