The city’s parks department and the Columbus Park Foundation have surpassed a $400,000 fundraising goal for the James A. Henderson Playground Project inside The Commons, exceeding the goal by $25,000.
The city is in the process of drafting a request for proposals (RFP) for updates that will be made to the Commons indoor playground.
The fundraising total includes a Reeves Foundation Grant for $100,000 to be given over a two-year period, said Project and Resource Development Director Celeste Reynolds.
While the original plan was to begin the project this summer, COVID-19 has changed the timeline somewhat, Reynolds said.
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The playground’s signature attraction, the Luckey Climber, needs repairs. The cable coating on the climber “has been broken down from the hand oils from visitors, according to the project description, but repairs have been on hold.
Pam Harrell, director of business services at the parks department, said the East Coast company that would complete the work is currently closed due to the pandemic.
The start of playground upgrades and repairs will depend on the time frame and available of companies who respond to the request for proposals, Harrell said.
Once the RFP is completed and considered by the Commons Board in July, companies will be able to give demonstrations of how they would approach the project.
“Once we start talking more to playground companies and seeing what they have to offer, we’ll start making more definite plans of what we’re doing,” Reynolds said. “It really depends on what we can do for the money that we have raised and what will be the best use of the area that we have at the current playground.”
Reynolds said the project has been in works since 2018 and that the Commons playground is in dire need of updates and repairs.
“When they built the playground, they never anticipated the volume of users that would be at that facility,” she said. Columbus’s “only free indoor playground” at The Commons sees over 100,000 visitors annually.
The profile states that repairs include repairing and resurfacing the “pour and play surface,” replacing the Luckey Climber cable coating, fixing broken equipment on the toddler area and music wall, increasing lighting to allow play for evenings, redesigning the current lighting system to help with future maintenance, removing barrier walls so parents can watch their children more easily and purchasing “new playground technologies” that will make cleaning easier.
One of the planned updates, according to the profile, is to make designated, safe play areas for infants and toddlers.
Reynolds also stated that the parks department wants to make the playground more inclusive and create “sensory experiences, especially for children on the autism spectrum or with different abilities.” The profile said that such experiences help children “develop language skills, support motor skills, and problem solving skills all while having fun.”
“We just want to make it more reflective of what our community is now and make sure that everyone gets to experience the fun of the playground,” Reynolds said.
In addition to the recently received Reeves Foundation Grant, the foundation also received a $100,000 Positive Change Grant from the Heritage Fund, Reynolds said. The Bartholomew County Convention, Recreation and Visitors Promotion Commission granted $100,000 last June for the playground upgrades, on the condition that “all stakeholders give a final approval” before the end of 2020.
Reynolds said that the foundation also raised money for the project through a matching grant from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA). Since the foundation was able to raise $50,000, the IHCDA gave $50,000 as well. According to Harrell, the IHCDA extended the deadline to raise the money by a month, which was especially helpful because the foundation’s matching grant fundraiser began about the same time COVID-19 outbreaks hit the United States.
“We had an overwhelming response from the community. Every time we went to someone, saying, asking for a donation, they said ‘Absolutely. … We believe it’s a great community investment,’” Reynolds said.
