Rededication ceremony will be in late June
By Barb Pert Templeton
Members of the Marine City Commission formally approved the installation of Tot Lot Playground Equipment by Game Time/Sinclair Recreation at a recent meeting.
Installing the equipment at the Washington Street Mini Park began on May 28 and was to be completed by mid-June. The cost was $21,450.
When the item came up at a Marine City Commission meeting on June 6, Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick took a few moments to thank the city manager for his work on getting the project moving forward.
Installing the equipment at the Washington Street Mini Park began on May 28 and was expected to be completed by mid-June.
City Manager Scott Adkins had previously informed the board that the equipment was not the typical “Lincoln Log or Lego” set coming out of the box and the city was fortunate enough to find a company to complete the task.
“I just want to thank you for getting this back on track, I know they had an opening but your diligence on calling all these companies got it all back on track so I really, really, appreciate the staff getting this back,” Hendrick said.
“If anybody has had a chance to see it, we are very pleased,” Adkins replied. “It is in the settling stage, letting the concrete setup, then next week we’ll go back in and top dress the safety cushioning material.”
“A lot of little children are very excited right now,” Commissioner Sean O’Brien said.
“Big children too,” Adkins interjected.
Commissioner Brian Ross said his wife was very pleased when she saw the equipment in place on the playground and she actually saw kids playing on it despite caution tape being in place.
“So please don’t us it yet, for your own safety,” Ross said.
“Some of the snow fencing is down, it’s fallen down,” O’Brien said.
“It may have had some help,” Adkins replied.
O’Brien joked that it wasn’t him that moved the fencing “this time.”
“I want to second the thank-you and appreciation for getting this moving; these things happen and we don’t know always know all the construction or challenges that come down and this got moved in a very timely matter,” O’Brien said.
Funding for the project was from a T-Mobile Grant, Community Foundation funds and St. Clair County Recreation Millage restricted funds.
During his regular reporting to the commission under ‘administrative reports’ Adkins said the city was fortunate to receive the $50,000 T-Mobile grant for the playground equipment. He said just under $42,000 was utilized for the equipment and it’s robust, beautiful and larger playset than they anticipated.
“When it was unboxed, I think now we can all realize the scale of this and it could have been an impossible task for our current DPW staff to do just because of our staff, we only have four full-time employees, actually three currently and one part-time and how are we going to do all the other work?” Adkins said.
Once the surface materials are in place and the park is up and running Adkins said they would like to host a small rededication and ribbon cutting ceremony for the commission and the community.
“We’ll open it fully to everyone ahead of time though,” he added.
Hendrick told the city manager that she talked to the DPW (Foreman Jeff Schmidt) and understands there will be a port-a-john at the playground. She asked if there were plans to install cameras at the site?
Adkins said they were looking into the possibility of cameras and would get back to the commission soon.
