City receives parks grant

SANDPOINT — A new program designed to make local parks more inclusive got a financial boost last week when the city received a $5,000 grant to help build accessible playground equipment.

The grant, one of 86 given annually by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, will help fund Project Everyone Play. As part of the project, the Parks and Recreation Department will build or renovate play equipment at city parks. The $5,000 will help pay for a swing set at Travers Park, which Parks and Recreation Director Kim Woodruff said will be built next year.

Woodruff said he was contacted by a number of local parents and citizens who were concerned with the lack of accessibility at the city’s play areas. Those initial talks turned into a long-range plan to make portions of all city parks accessible to everyone, including disabled children.

“What we want to do is recognize the need in the community and then plan for it, as much as we can,” Woodruff said. “We want our playgrounds to have features that are accessible for everybody.”

The city officially kicked off Project Everyone Play several weeks ago by unveiling a new all-access swing set at Lakeview Park, Woodruff said.

“By all access, we want to design and build things with features that truly do span that entire spectrum, from non-ambulatory to fully ambulatory” he said.

Woodruff said he will continue to seek out grants for the project, but will also use money from his own budget to continue upgrading the equipment.