Federal funds are about to breathe life back into an aging playground, to the tune of $30,000.
“We’re just happy we got the grant,” said Highlands Mayor Ken Williams.
Back in 2013, the District began upgrading the children’s play area in Twinflower Park, near the intersection of Millstream and Caleb Pike roads. Work consisted of building retaining walls to contain new engineered wood chips and retrofitting the existing play equipment. New concrete pads with two new concrete picnic tables were also installed.
The District has funding set aside to replace the aging wooden play structure, but has yet to take on that project, said WIlliams. He said with this grant money the project budget has effectively doubled, opening a range of opportunities that didn’t exist before.
“It’s going to be excellent and it’s going to be a lot of fun for the kids.”
Williams added that parents had been asking for this upgrade for awhile and will be quite happy about the news, although no plans have been finalized.
District staff will start the process by getting quotes and preparing a report for council, who will then decide which committees to involve and what the next steps will be. Funding for the project cannot be applied until April of next year, so the District has lots of time to plan for the project.
Williams is just excited to get the project started and get the public involved in providing feedback on how to finish the park.
“It’s basically going to be all new things for the kids.”
The grant money was received from the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program. That program will invest $150 million over two years into existing community projects across the country as part of a celebration of Canada’s 150 birthday in 2017.
katie@goldstreamgazette.com