Council OKs design for inclusive playground

SANDPOINT — In a 3-2 vote, Sandpoint City Council approved moving forward with construction design and development for a new inclusive playground and splash pad at Travers Park at Wednesday’s council meeting.

This will allow city staff to purchase equipment while creating a detailed construction design from the existing concept that has been tailored by public opinion.

The park, which has been controversial since plans for an indoor pickleball facility, inclusive playground, and splash pad were announced, aims to go beyond ADA accessibility to ensure that all children have a place to play together.

Because renovations have been accompanied by tree removals and other changes that some with longtime ties to the community have opposed, many have passionately worked to prevent changes such as the indoor sports facility. Some cited frustrations that the park will no longer be an entirely outdoor facility.      

With newly elected officials sworn in Wednesday, conversation from the dais shifted slightly since past meetings, as new councilors Pam Duquette and Kyle Schreiber have voiced some concerns about the park in the past. Previously, most council votes regarding the park have been unanimous.

Maeve Nevins-Lavtar, the city’s Parks Planning and Development manager, and Mike Terrell, the landscape architect for the project, gave an updated presentation on the park following the collection of more surveys. 

The playground, which is being designed based on local themes, has developed based on input from children at Washington Elementary, Sandpoint Waldorf School, Farmin-Stidwell Elementary, and Sandpoint Junior Academy, a community workshop, and a public survey that ended Jan. 1. Each draft concept has incorporated new input as the design team moves toward a final design. 

The survey allows participants to rank features such as poured-in-place safety surfacing, fencing, playground equipment, and benches, in order of highest to lowest priority.  Participants could prioritize zip lines, spinning or sliding features, splash pad equipment, materials, and many other items. 

Following the survey, which garnered around 270 responses, the team revised its schematic design to include more natural grass, true logs instead of concrete logs for some of the equipment, and a green fence with foliage. They also made changes to relocated park equipment, moving it north above the sled hill. Many citizens voiced concerns about the first design placing the park too close to the parking lot. 

Duquette said that while she has appreciated efforts to involve children in the design, she believes more community outreach is necessary before moving forward. Specifically, she would like to see all of the comments collected from the recent survey. 

“How do we go ahead today and OK this when you’re still going to look at the comments, you’re still going to put things together,” she asked. “How can you decide on equipment if we don’t know what’s going on?”

Schreiber said he would like to see a more focused and detailed design that the public can offer comments on before the project goes out to bid, stating that even if it delays construction a little bit, the worst-case scenario would likely mean the park would be open for summer 2025. 

“I think it’s much more important for us to get this right, than for us to get it right now,” he said. 

The next steps would include purchasing equipment based on the best bids received, Nevins-Lavtar said. She also will be returning to give updates and receive input throughout the process.

“The biggest change that we would see going forward would be literally the color or something like that,” she said. “But we have the feedback that says that the community wants a nature theme so we’ll tend to pick nature themed colors … All we’re asking for at this point is to move from schematic into construction design development, while simultaneously purchasing equipment.”

Public comment was a mixed bag, featuring thoughts from those against designs moving forward, and others who are excited for them. 

Molly McCahon, a resident heavily involved in protests over changes to the park, asked the design team to go back to the drawing board. 

“This was not adequately thought out from the beginning,” she said. “But I want you to seriously consider keeping Travers Park an exclusively outdoor park and preserve the entire two acres as open green space. Adding an all inclusive play structure with handicap access would be a very valued addition to this community, that has never, ever been in doubt.”

Holland, who also protested changes at the park, said the city should focus on the needs of the majority. 

“To focus exclusively on a redesign for the ability of disabled children and toddlers … the planners are actually underserving the majority of our local kids, kids who are for the most part, active and strong and need equipment to challenge their abilities to develop their motor skills,” she said. “This playground, as it’s designed, is not really providing a lot of challenging gear … I’m so glad we’re looking to help the little ones and kids that need a little extra help but let’s make this a playground like it used to be.”

Traci Schmidt, a pediatric physical therapy specialist in Sandpoint, reflected on past observations at Travers Park before the new construction. She mentioned children in wheelchairs falling face-first into the woodchips, children with mobility issues being launched from slides that weren’t designed to slow children down toward the end, and children who couldn’t play with their wheelchair-bound siblings because the park was not designed to accommodate them. 

“Now imagine you’re a kiddo who gets bullied at school,” Smidt said. “You see a child who needs some help on the playground so your role has switched from victim to leader.” 

With the new design for Travers Park, she anticipated these conditions being heavily improved.

“I overheard an adult saying ‘they can just play somewhere else, this is our park,’” she said. “They were right. This is our park. The gem of Sandpoint. Wouldn’t it be great if the gem demonstrated how real our community is and how we teach our children to be kind and inclusive and caring. They will grow up and teach their kids to do the same. Thank you for supporting this oh so missing piece in our community.”

Chris Owens, a resident whose family has deep generational ties to the community, experienced a logging accident that left him in a wheelchair 14 years ago. 

“The community embraced me and helped me get back on my feet, and I think that’s the real identity of Sandpoint, not the nostalgia of certain places or how they look,” he said. “It’s the love and all the support that goes into this community and everything we do to help each other. So I would just hope that some feeling of nostalgia doesn’t prevent certain people in the community from embracing those who either now have a difficult life or were born with a difficult life.”

He reflected on the challenges he faced connecting with his family at the playground, revealing that inclusive parks mean new opportunities for parents, not just children, who struggle with different abilities. 

“I spent a lot of time at Travers Park close to my children but always from a distance because I couldn’t get in there to swing with them,” he said. “There is lots of green and there are lots of places around for the strong, vibrant people. We have nowhere for the underprivileged though.”

His wife, Beth Wise, also took a turn to speak about their experiences and the hope the new park will offer to future generations. 

“It’s really hard for me to get to play with our 7-year-old daughter and leave my husband in the shelter — he can’t be with us,” she said. “That’s what has happened to all four of our children.”

As an occupational therapist, Wise said she has worked with hundreds of families in Sandpoint with disabilities who are still sitting by the sidelines watching their family members play.

She stressed that smaller details concerning equipment are not as important as making this opportunity available to struggling families as soon as possible. 

“When my family visits my family in Ohio where all the playgrounds are inclusive and the community cares about that kind of design, my husband can have nerf gun fights with our children and we can play tag and he can push them on the swings and we need that here,” she said. “So let’s move forward and stop fighting and just get going on something that will be better.”

    An concept draft created for an inclusive playground at Travers Park was shared by Mike Terrell at the Dec. 20 council meeting.