SALAMANCA — The summer-long process to get a new playground built on Highland Avenue is expected to reach completion a week from Saturday, and organizers will need all the help they can get.
An estimated 300 community members and volunteers will meet Sept. 15 to transform the outdated site into a kid-designed, state-of-the-art playground in just six hours.
The park, located on Highland Avenue between Great Valley Street and Linden Avenue, was chosen in the spring by the Salamanca Youth Bureau as the site most in need of a new playground.
Organizers of the build estimate the play area would be roughly 14,000 square feet, which they say could be the largest playground in Western New York.
“They are designing this as a premiere playground for this area,” said Sandi Brundage, director of the Salamanca Youth Bureau. “Rather than bussing kids to Allegany State Park, the school can bring kids here.”
A “Build it with KaBOOM!” playground grant, which was funded by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation through its Built to Play Initiative, was awarded to the city in June. The city’s contribution to the project is about $8,500. Officials have not yet disclosed the grant’s total award to the city.
In July, kids from the surrounding community came together to draw their dream playground. The final playground design is based on their drawings and will provide more than 900 kids in Salamanca with a safe place to play.
Brundage said some of the playground’s highlights include a zipline, a spider web-like structure and several swings. There will be sections of the playground for 2- to 5-year-olds, 6- to 12-year-olds and special section for kids 13 and up, she said.
“It’s more like a parkour course,” she said of the 13-and-up section, similar to the obstacle courses seen in American Ninja Warrior.
This is the third playground to be built as part of a broader effort led by the Built to Play initiative intended to give kids more opportunities for free play. One was built in Jamestown through KaBOOM! on Aug. 25.
“I went to the Jamestown build on (Aug. 25) and we picked up a ton of supplies,” Brundage said. “They gave us 22 rakes and I don’t know how many 5-gallon buckets and three or four pallets of concrete.”
WORK ON THE site begins during the week before the community build Sept. 15. Equipment would be delivered on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
“The school is going to bring down a crew with their forklift to help unload,” Brundage said. “And then we have sort and then place it all.”
In the days before, a crew from the city’s Department of Public Works (DPW) will be on site preparing the ground and building a path through the lot.
“I’m going to get the dimensions on where exactly this playground is going to sit, so I know where we’re digging out and what the grade is,” said DPW Superintendent Rob Carpenter. “We’re going to put the path in and they’re going to build the park around the path.”
On build day, a kick-off ceremony will take place between 8:30 and 9 a.m. while volunteers register and sign in. Shortly after 9, construction will begin on the playground, which will take roughly six hours to complete.
“The other neat thing is, we’re going to have meals for everybody,” said Common Council member Michael Lonto, chair of the recreation commission. Some of the council members and mayor are in charge of the food, Lonto said, and are looking for volunteer chefs and servers.
If all goes well, the final construction phase will take place in mid-afternoon with a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled between 3 and 3:30 p.m.
Organizers said local officials from the city, county, state, Seneca Nation of Indians, Salamanca school district and Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation are invited to attend the ribbon-cutting.
After the build is complete, the playground must set untouched for 48 hours for the concrete to properly cure before anyone plays on it and shifts the equipment.
For more information or to sign up, contact Brundage at the youth center, 945-1311.
(Contact editor Kellen Quigley at kquigleysp@gmail.com)
