By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays ARC Park project has raised enough money to proceed with phase one, which is the installation of an accessible playground.
The project has raised about $700,000 of the $774,000 needed to build the ARC playground at 33rd and Hillcrest in Hays and the city has given the group authorization to move forward with the construction of the park.
Playground equipment has been ordered and dirt work is scheduled to begin in October. The delivery time on the equipment will likely be weeks longer than normal because of COVID-19 complications, sad Sarah Meitner, Arc of the Central Plains board president.
A ceremonial groundbreaking will be scheduled for late September or early October.
Unfortunately, the playground will unlikely be open for play until spring. The rubber surface that protects playground users from falls can only be laid in weather that remains 40 degrees or warmer for a week.
This is the last piece of the playground that will go in, and contractors think it will be too cold once the other elements of the playground are finished to lay the surface.
Some of the equipment the park will include are accessible swings. One of the swings allows people to face each other. Another swing is a pad on which you can lie. The park also includes bucket swings that the user can be strapped into.
The park will include a we-go-round, which is like a merry-go-round, but its surface is flat with the ground so a wheelchair can roll onto it.
There is an accessible zip line and global motion ball, a large ball that spins like a merry-go-round, but has a governor for a soft stop. The Sway Fun is also a wheelchair-accessible piece of equipment. It rocks back and forth.
"The Sway Fun and the we-go-round besides being accessible, they are also multi-generational," Meitner said. "That means Kathy can get on with her granddaughter, and she can play right along side her and also our adults who cognitively still want to play, the [equipment] can handle an adult-size frame or an adult-size wheel chair.
The city required the park group remove plans for multiple cloth shade coverings. They said the covers easily tear and are expensive to replace. There will be two hard-cover awnings installed instead, Kathy McAdoo, Arc of the Central Plains executive director, said.
The Robert E. and Patricia A. Schmidt Foundation pledged $100,000 to the project as it launched in 2018. Last week Gary Shorman, president of the foundation, presented a check to the ARC Park group in time for the playground equipment to be ordered.
"The Schmidt Foundation is excited to help with the ARC Park project and will be working with the group to help finish up the next step as well," Shorman said. "There are so many in our community who would be able to use the park and enjoy the splash feature as well.”
Meitner said the Schmidt Foundation donation, which served as a matching grant, validated the project and served as a spring board for the ARC Park fundraising effort.
The Schmidt Foundation has been the single largest donor to the project thus far.
Now the majority of the money has been raised for the playground, the project is organizing to launch fundraising for the next phase of the project — an accessible splash pad.
Meitner said the group will have revised numbers for fundraising purposes soon.
Because the lead time on ordering the equipment for the splash pad and construction time is longer, Meitner said she doubted the splash pad would be installed in time for next summer.
Meitner said in addition to local donations, the project will continue to apply for grants for phase II, and phase III, which is an accessible baseball field.
Meitner said the community has been very generous in donating to the playground project. More than 700 individual donors have given to the project thus far.
Brent Kaiser, Arc of the Central Plains activities director, also wanted to thank intern Mia Haines, who helped jump start fundraising again after efforts were slowed by COVID-19.
If you wish to donate to the project, you can do so online at https://haysarcpark.org/.
You can also follow the project's Facebook page.