On Wednesday, October 6th, a sod turning event was held to officially begin development of the Lions Club of Esterhazy Accessible Play Park. The park is located near the interpretive museum, near Potash Pete.
On Thursday, October 7th at 9 A.M., the preliminary work will begin and on Tuesday the playground installation will begin. The equipment will take a few days to install, but the park will be ready soon.
Back in May of 2019, a local resident came forward to the town requesting for the potential of a playground structure to be looked at on the south side of the highway, one that would be accessible by any child.
Council reviewed the idea at budget time and talked about planning for this type of structure in the near future. A part of those discussions revolved around the topic of asking for funding from local groups.
Shortly after this discussion, the provincial government announced the Municipal Economic Enhancement Program (MEEP) where the municipality of Esterhazy was given $359,608 to use towards project(s). Once the Administration and Esterhazy Town Council started to work on this program to see how best to spend these funds, the playground option was one of the four projects that were chosen to fall under the MEEP program.
From there, the local Esterhazy Lion’s Club was approached to assist with funds for the project. Once final quotes came in, the overall cost to put up the play structure with all of the ground work, rubberize safety ground work and the playground, the cost was going to be slightly over $180,000.
Coordination with the Town of Esterhazy Administration, Lions Club President Brenda Redman and Lion’s Member Dan Babyak led the project to an application to the Lions Club International, who may fund such accessible playgrounds.
With the strong support of the Esterhazy Lion’s Club, the application was approved. $70,000 from the town through the MEEP funding, $20,000 from Esterhazy Lions Club and $90,000 from Lions Club International have made this happen.
Town of Esterhazy Administrator, Mike Thorley, stated, “We are all excited to have this come to be and hopefully by mid-October, we will have a great addition to the Historical Park area with this playground structure!”
Lion President Brenda Redman said, “I think it’s the most exciting thing that’s happened in Esterhazy in a long time. I think it’s great that this is focusing on all children. The accessibility is very exciting.”
Lion Don Babyak stated, “I’m very happy to be part of it. I’m very happy we were able to, with Lion Brenda’s help, secure the grant from Lions Clubs International Foundation which was a huge help to get this underway. I’m grateful to our club for the amount of money we’ve sent to Lions Club International Foundation as well to help children all over the world. It’s really nice to see that anybody can play at this playground.”
Thanks to the local Lions Club, Lions Club International and the Town of Esterhazy, the Lions Club of Esterhazy Accessible Play Park will be open soon for all to use.