Friday, February 2, 2007

New Play Equipment for City Park!

Chatfield’s City Park on Main Street is a wonderful town gathering space with lots of green space, historic architecture and trees and a beautiful bandshell. The playground equipment, though, is severely outdated and mostly unsafe for our children. A group of concerned citizens has formed Park Partners to address this need – and you can help!
Park Partners wants to install safe, new equipment that will roughly cover the area taken up by the existing equipment – while saving as many trees and as much green space as possible. The park will have two areas – a fenced area for kids up to age five and a separate area for kids age five and older. It will cost approximately $100,000 to build this new park with a target completion date of Spring 2008. The City of Chatfield backs this project 100% and will assist in preparing the site and maintaining the equipment after it’s built.
For the overall design, they’ve decided to work with Leathers and Associates, a company that’s helped over 1600 communities build new parks – including Soldier’s Field in Rochester. Leathers uses a unique approach to creating a new park – first they research our history, then meet with schoolchildren for more ideas and then gather with the entire town for input and inspiration. Once a design is chosen, it will be up to our community to raise the funds and actually build the structure. Leathers assists every step of the way but by providing volunteer labor we’ll save nearly two-thirds the cost of traditional park systems.
Right now the project is just starting up and Park Partners is in need of volunteers and donations. All donations are tax-deductible and the Chosen Valley Community Foundation has agreed to handle all the funds. The kick-off Design Day is being planned right now for March 6, 2007 look for information in the Chatfield News or for a flyer coming home from school.
To find more details, pictures of similar projects, volunteer opportunities or donation options, visit the Park Partners blog site at http://parkpartners.blogspot.com. Or call Sue Greiner at 507-867-0119 or email her at SueGreiner@mchsi.com. Also contact Shannon Glensinski at 867-3439 glensinski7@msn.com
To see similar projects by Leathers and Associates, visit their website at www.leathersassociates.com.
To see the Soldier’s Field Park and its volunteer building process, visit www.kiwanisrochester.org/Playground.htm.
To make a tax-deductible donation, send a check to:
Chosen Valley Community Foundation
Attn: Park Partners
P.O. Box 552
Chatfield, MN 55923

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