Innovative playground in funding stage
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RONAN—A proposed Ronan playground project will promote community health, attract tourists, and grab national headlines for its groundbreaking ingenuity, community and company leaders said at an information session last week hosted by the parks and recreation board.
Funding and mitigation plans are the primary roadblocks to installing the first of three culturally themed play pockets designed by GameTime along the pathways of Bockman Park.
“Until we get the money for the first play pocket, there will be no construction,” Ronan Parks Director Jennifer Rolfsness said.
It is difficult to project an exact cost of the project, Rolfsness said, because prices fluctuate over time. Robert V. Barron, senior vice-president of sales for GameTime estimated the cost to be approximately $400,000.
Rolfsness said she hopes construction on the first play pocket will begin in the spring.
The city has received pledges from business and community members for funding and is also applying for grants to pay for the project. To raise funds, the city is also selling personalized bricks that will be placed along the pathway. People can help by raising awareness for the project.
“Sometimes, it’s hard to get people to visualize what exactly it is,” Ronan resident and park namesake Carlene Bockman said.
The project is an innovative new approach to playground design. Instead of concentrating play equipment in one area, parents and children are propelled through the park to smaller play areas. The play sets are designed to be culturally relevant to Ronan. A bald eagle slide with wings to climb and frog jungle gym will be labeled with educational signage that includes recordings of local school children talking about the animals in Salish, Kootenai, and English.
The play area will be the first of its kind in the nation, according to Barron.
“This is going to grab national headlines,” he said.
It also might be enough to get travelers along Highway 93 to stop and enjoy the park.
“It’s going to be something you’ll see from the road and stop for,” Barron said.
But the biggest benefit will be to the Ronan community, said Dana Grant, director of development at SAFE Harbor, a domestic abuse shelter in Ronan. He said he believes the imaginative approach to the playground will bring more children outside, and cut down on the rates of diabetes and other heath problems in Ronan.
“It’s not the whole solution, but it’s such a great opportunity and it’s such an unusual approach,” Grant said. “You have to ask ‘what is the vision for Ronan?’”
Grant said skeptics of the project should look at the popularity of the bicycle project that connects Pablo and Ronan if they wonder how much use the playground will get.
“People said the walkway between Ronan and Pablo wasn’t going to get used,” Grant said. “Rarely do you not see someone out there walking or on their bikes. If you build it, they will come.”
