{"id":92846,"date":"2019-07-22T22:14:58","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T22:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-looks-to-the-long-term-when-planning-new-playground\/"},"modified":"2019-07-22T22:14:58","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T22:14:58","slug":"dolores-looks-to-the-long-term-when-planning-new-playground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-looks-to-the-long-term-when-planning-new-playground\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores looks to the long term when planning new playground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Dolores Town Board is working on replacing the playground equipment in Joe Rowell Park that was removed in 2018 for safety reasons.<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The town of Dolores is considering how to pay for a new playground at Joe Rowell Park to replace worn-out equipment removed in 2018.<\/p>\n

Options include combining grants and money from town reserves or hiring a part-time fundraiser for the project, said Town Manager Jay Ruybalid. Another idea is to implement a phased-in approach that adds equipment over a few years.<\/p>\n

The estimated cost of the playground equipment project is $300,000. The town plans to apply for a $300,000 grant from Great Outdoors Colorado. The grant requires a 25% match from the town, or $75,000. The grant\u2019s application deadline is Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

The town was a finalist for a $300,000 grant from the Colorado Health Foundation for the new playground but was not chosen, Ruybalid said.<\/p>\n

A parks committee was formed in 2018 and charged with organizing the new playground effort. A community survey of more than 600 respondents showed overwhelming support for it, and the preference is for the former location.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe survey provides information in terms of what the community is hoping for with the playground,\u201d said board member Tracy Murphy.<\/p>\n

There will be a joint meeting between the parks committee and town board at the monthly workshop at 6:30 p.m. July 22 to discuss playground plans. A special town board meeting is also scheduled for July 22 in case the board decides to take action on playground funding.<\/p>\n

The town has $1.9 million in reserves, but only $900,000 is potentially available for special projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur reserves look good and give us the opportunity to move forward on a multigenerational playground and park,\u201d said board member James Biard.<\/p>\n

Other items discussed were selecting materials that require minimum maintenance, and budgeting for long-term playground upkeep.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe playground is a good investment and supports economic development,\u201d said board member Melissa Watters. \u201cIt is a stopping place for visitors to take their kids and brings revenue into town.\u201d Survey takers preferred the new playground serve children ages 2-12 and that future park projects incorporate additional play and exercise features for teens and adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe playground should be unique to the town of Dolores and should not be composed primarily of prefabricated components,\u201d according to a survey summary. \u201cIdeally, the playground will again be a significant landmark in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board agreed that replacing the playground is a top priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe taxpayers say they miss it terribly and are looking for us to rebuild it,\u201d said board member Jen Stark.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

town reserves are funding options<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6192,5786,5740,5737,5736,5735,5741,5760],"tags":[747,44,13,28,29,976],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-92846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-children","category-dolores","category-frontpage-lead","category-headlines","category-local-news","category-news","category-newsletter","category-outdoor-recreation","tag-children","tag-dolores","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-outdoor-recreation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92846"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=92846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}