By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
There is no playground area for young children in the southwest quadrant of the Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex west of Hays. Although there is play equipment in the northeast set of fields, families have been requesting something similar in the southwest fields.
“It’s been one of the most discussed items by folks visiting our facilities,” according to Jeff Boyle, director of parks. “It’s a discussion that’s been going on for years.”
The Hays Recreation Commission (HRC) and the city of Hays have both each budgeted to spend $50,000 this year for the purchase of a new playground unit for the southwest area.
Boyle showed the proposed playground purchase to Hays city commissioners last week.
“For the first time ever, this particular proposal (from among 12 submitted) received 100 percent of the votes by city and HRC staff,” Boyle told the commission, although he conceded “no 8-year-olds voted.”
“I could have gotten you a committee of six,” quipped father-of-six Mayor James Meier, which drew a big laugh.
The Riggs Recreation Equipment proposal has the most features. The overall design produces five levels of play including a ground level area with items for very young kids.
The $99,996.88 bid also includes a pour-in-place rubber fall zone and a shade canopy with netting on two sides to protect children from foul balls coming in from the adjacent baseball/softball diamonds.
“The only thing we would have to do in this (85′ by 43′) area is take our tree spade and remove three trees and move them to better locations, like by bleachers where folks can enjoy the shade,” Boyle said.
When the Parks Department contemplates purchasing playground equipment, there are three areas of consideration – the age group for the playground, how many features are on the unit, and the equipment warranty.
Each of the 12 companies bid ASTM (American Society for Standards and Testing) certified commercial grade playground equipment and offer similar warranties, according to Boyle.
The number of features is what pushed the Riggs Recreation unit into first place.
“When we went into this, we weren’t expecting to get quite this much,” Boyle said. “This has 21 playable features and five levels or heights to play from with major slides. It’s a really neat unit with a lot of character to it.”
An amount of $50,000 is budgeted in the Special Park and Recreation Budget for the equipment. HRC would also pay $49,998.44.
Boyle noted that Riggs Recreation has done other projects for the city including the playground equipment in East Frontier Park, funded by the Hays Rotary Club, and also the unit at the Pratt-Optimist soccer playground. The Kansas City company also paints the Municipal Park tennis courts.
The city commission will vote on the recommendation during their meeting Thursday night.