Nearly four years after the west playground at Centennial Park in Cochrane received accessibility upgrades, the east side is now set to receive refurbishments as well.
A fence was put up around the section being upgraded May 16 to temporarily close the area and mark the start of the approximately three-month project.
“This is such an incredible opportunity for the community to provide more inclusive spaces that everyone can enjoy together,” said Mitchell Hamm, Town of Cochrane director of community services, in a press release. "We are so thrilled to be able to create a more inclusive and diverse community and support initiatives like this."
With the help of Variety Alberta, a children's charity, the project will create an inclusive playground for those with physical, learning, developmental, or emotional challenges.
The entire playground structure and rubber surfacing will be replaced with new, modernized equipment including ramps, slides and a climbing apparatus - not unlike it did before.
"The difference people will notice is that the surfacing we're using is going to be using a lot of colour to create themes," said Larry Horeczy, COO of Variety Alberta. "There's going to be animal prints to find on the surface ... there's going to be rubber logs and rocks for the kids to play on.
"It's going to be a very interactive and playful surface. That's going to be unique to this playground and quite a difference from the existing."
Between the rubber ground resurfacing, new equipment and other surfacing costs, the budget for the project rings in around $300,000, the majority of which was raised by Variety's fundraising efforts with partnering community groups.
The Town of Cochrane included improvements for the playground in its 2021 Capital Budget, expecting $85,000 to be used from reserves. However, thanks to additional cost savings from donations made by Variety volunteers and partners, Hamm said they've only had to dedicate around $35,000 to the project "both in contract and contribution to prep the site as well as provide internal manpower to do any of the improvements needed."
Hamm said the Town plans to create a strategy to help make selections for dedicating resources for replacements at other playgrounds in the future.
This is the Town's second partnership venture with Variety Alberta, which first assisted with playground upgrades at the park in 2018.
The west side of the playground was not accessible or inclusive at all before the upgrades, according to Horeczy.
"It was a set of swings on gravel with a little basketball hoop next to it," he said.
The playground now includes rubber surfacing, a variety of swings for all abilities, mini trampolines built into the ground, different spinning and climbing mechanisms, sensory equipment, and more - all in an array of colours.
"Now, everybody loves it," said Horeczy. "If you're gonna invest the time to make a playground, do you want it to be a playground that occasionally your kids want to play on once in a while? Or, do you want it to be a place where everybody wants to be?
"We want to use our design, our experience and our research to make sure that playgrounds are made for everybody and allow opportunities for everyone to play together."
The existing playground structure will be donated by the Town to the Emmanual Foundation, a non-profit that collects decommissioned playgrounds and gives them a second chance by sending them to developing countries.
To learn more about the playground project, visit: https://www.cochrane.ca/2141/Centennial-Park-Playground-Resurface.
