Kids design play area

Print Story

Email to Friend

Discuss this story

The group wants to start building the playground in June.

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

AUSTINTOWN — To Hannah Kunkle, 6, of Lancaster Court the new playground at Wedgewood Park means one thing: "Having fun!"

Austin Mott, 10, who lives in an apartment complex near the park, likes the idea of being able to swim and play on the swings. He'd also like to see a skate park there.

The two were among about 20 children who presented the township trustees with the design for the new playground Monday.

It was the children's ideas that Meyer Design of Akron, which donated its services, put on paper, said Carolyn Senedak, coordinator of the neighborhood group called Friends of Wedgewood Park.

The group, made up of about 40 families, has been trying to restore the 13-acre park, a former private swim club off Lancaster, since 2005. Conditions there had deteriorated, and vandals had the run of the park since the township bought it from the Wedgewood Park Community Club in 1997.

To begin in June

The new playground, which Home Depot will help build with some donated materials and discounts on others, will become a reality this summer, Senedak said. "We're going to get started building in June."

It will include a track ride, a toy rider area, teeter totters, swings, "all kinds of sliding boards," rock walls and a parent seating area, she said.

Trustees voted to commit up to $25,000 toward the park restoration, which also will include ballfields and hiking trails and possibly even a skateboard park.

Part of that money will be $15,000 from a conservation easement grant for Axe Factory Run, which goes through the park, said Joyce Gottron, head of the township parks department. The township is getting the funding, a federal grant, through the Mahoning County Soil and Water Conservation District, she said. She said the grant should be final by the end of April.

Senedak said she thought the easement funding was separate from the $25,000 the township set aside, not included in it.

Trustee Lisa Oles said trustees "never clarified that." She said the grant has been in the works for three years, but has not materialized. She said if it is not available, the money will be there so the project can go forward.

Costs

The playground is projected to cost $14,200, so there will be enough money to complete at least that part of the restoration project, she said.

The Friends group also has about $7,000, Senedak said. It holds several fundraisers.

Mike McNally of Maureen Drive thanked trustees for the money.

"For a long time, this area's been a blight," he said. "For people who live in the Wedgewood area, it's going to be a bright spot for us."

Trustee David Ditzler remembered "spending the day there until dark" when he was a child.

Trustee Bo Pritchard said it wasn't within the township's budget to make improvements when it bought the park. He said the township appreciates the group's commitment. "It has been a joy to watch it come back to life."

Tuesday, April 10, 2007