Park to Open for Play in Late September

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By the end of September, Blue Ridge’s children will be swinging and sliding at City Park according to Blue Ridge City Council members.  At their special-called meeting on Friday, August 26 council members voted to allot $120,000 for finishing City Park. Playground installation is slated to begin mid-September.

$97,000 will go toward new playground equipment and play surface. Most of it is for three large connected pieces which feature 15 different elements:  four slides ranging from 8 feet to 12 feet; 10 different climbing areas; a circular spinner and swings.  Several of the components are specifically for children under five, including a toddler swing that both a parent and a child can be on at the same time.  A slide, a swing and the spinner are also handicapped accessible so all of Blue Ridge’s children can enjoy City Park. Blu Bear will return from his six months of beauty rest, refurbished and termite free, to watch over the children playing.  A gated fence will surround the play area.  The company making the playground equipment also made the equipment for Union County’s Meeks Park.

The playground is going to the part of the park where it used to be.  Previous discussions were that the playground will be in front of the stage and barbecue pit area.  However, the footprint for playground is too large for the area.  The new playground will sit back further back from East Main Street and Church  Street, closer to the railroad tracks and bathroom than it was before.

To accommodate the playground, much of the newly-installed landscaping and sod must be taken up.  No word yet from City Council how this will affect the $120,000 Vaughn-Jordon Foundation grant which was given in order to make a horticulture park which features native species and a small arboretum.  In fact, the Vaughn-Jordan Foundation’s guidelines for the grant states “All grants must further botanical and horticultural science and the mission of the foundation is “horticultural and botanical enrichment.” At the June 30th meeting, Mayor Whitener told the Council that the Council cannot make changes outside the general scope of the design the city submitted to the foundation and if changes are not used for the stated purpose will be taken out of the grant.  Council members present at the meeting could not say if placing the playground in the newly-landscaped area will cause the city to lose the grant money.  If the new plan is not approved by the Vaughn-Jordan Foundation, the city must pay for all of landscaping it has already done with grant funds.

Renovating City Park has been mired in city politics and headaches.  At the August 26th meeting, Council members talked about some of the setbacks their decisions caused.  Councilwoman Arp said that the Mayor had told them Kiwanis would donate $80,000 to $100,000 for playground equipment.  However when Councilwoman Arp met with the Kiwanis in June, she was told $25,000.  Arp also said that the Mayor had told them that Kiwanis had secured the grant, but Arp found out that the grant had not been formalized before early decisions about the playground had been made. Kiwanis stated that they did not have clear direction of how the park was proceeding and, therefore, did not apply for the grant.

The Council laid out the timeline for the park as they had experienced it.  They stated that in November 2015 the Council had started working on the park, but plans were held up for a few months over discussions about where the grill pit should go.  In December, the Mayor said that the Kiwanis grant for the equipment will still be forthcoming.  Arp stated she wanted to spend money renovating and adding to the old playground and move to the rest of City Park after the playground was finished.  Arp said, “We thought everything had been taken care of.”  In March, the City Council approved the first stage of landscaping which was paid through the Vaughn-Jordan grant.  To prepare the park for landscaping, all of the playground equipment was taken out.  In April, according to Arp, the City Council found out that Kiwanis had not applied for the playground equipment grant.  In June, the City Council voted to put Arp in charge of the City Park renovation.

Mayor Whitener and Councilwoman Thomas were not at the meeting to give their version of events.

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