The Moran Park Play Structure should be up soon.
By Michel Vekved for the Friends of Moran State Park
There isn’t another play structure like it available to the kids in our community and our visitors any day and all day!
The Friends of Moran are really excited about this year’s project. We’ve been driving community awareness of this project since March and hoping for community donations as well as volunteers when it comes time to remove the old structure and install the new one. Funding has come from several different sources.
We received a grant from OICF which covered a third of the costs. We’ve received some very generous private donations too. Some funding will come from the Friend’s Summit Gift Shop sales and from the Steve Braun Memorial Triathlon. Our recent island wide mailing was one last effort to make sure everyone understood what a great community project this is and how they can help us in the final push to raise our last $5,000.
The current play structure has served its purpose well, but it’s over 30 years old. Safety standards have changed and the use of this structure is high so based upon those facts our board along with park approval decided to pursue a new play structure. Our new structure meets or exceeds current safety standards. It will accommodate a greater number of kids and a broader age range.
The manufacturer, Playworld has a pretty good green initiative. Most of the structure is metal coated with a pvc free coating that’s environmentally friendly. Their packing materials are recycled. They are reducing their carbon footprint in their facilities and try to buy within 150 miles of their plant. Granted that plant is in Pennsylvania, but its USA made. The slides are composed of some new and some recycled materials.
This structure is certainly durable and fun. The products have lifetime warranties on some parts, 15 year warranty on others all of which made this a worthwhile investment for Friends and the park.
We are also replacing the safety surfacing. We are using engineered wood fibers, an earth friendly, safe and affordable option. It’s a lot better than the pea-gravel and we’ll have good drainage so it should last as many years as the structure. We’ll be adding new boarders and a ADA compliant ramp to enter the play area.
We chose some aesthetically suitable colors, so we won’t be looking at a bright orange, yellow and red structure in the swaying branches of cedar trees.
Finally, we were able to save about $2,000 by having it assembled by volunteers with park management supervision. We hope to collect some energetic and handy individuals to come help us towards the end of October!
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So if I understand this correctly, the community is funding to majority of it, the community is assembling it, and in exchange, the state requires the community to pay to use it in the form of the new Discovery Fee parking fee.
Maybe this should be built in a location accesible to all without paying the state for the privilege of using it.
We are hoping the community will help Friends assemble the structure. We appreciate a generous community that supports the park during these difficult economical times. The community is not our main funding source. A majority of the funding will be derived from from visitor donations and gift shop sales.
Jim:
I believe your understanding is a bit off target…..
First we have the FRIENDS of MORAN who tirelessly work (for free) to man the gift shop, organize work parties in the park, volunteer on the campsites, and perform many other tasks – because they love to do so. We owe them (our neighbors) a big THANK YOU !
Next, the ‘FRIENDS’ seek out donations and apply for grants to support (supplement) their other efforts. Aren’t we blessed to have folks who do this to benefit our community?
Finally, we have DONORS who love and appreciate the PARK – and willingly contribute funds to make this happen. Let’s THANK them – and our Community Foundation as well.
Then there are the many of us (residents and non residents of Orcas) who get to ENJOY this wonderful natural beauty every day – thank you Robert Moran.
The Discovery Fee of $ 35 per year or about 10 cents per day is a small price to pay for all we get in return.
Let’s start appreciating how lucky we are.
I stand corrected. The article stated that 1/3 of the cost was provided by an OICF grant, that “some very generous private donations” were received, and that “some funding” would be provided by the Friends. That made it sound as if the Friends contribution, which does come from the generous efforts of volunteers, was minor. Joe’s comment makes it clear how much effort the Friends really put into this which is something that I think should have been covered in the original article.
Thanks Jim…..