Document text
Local report Grants and community donations will result in many upgrades to a massive Medford parks playground soon to be built, with new features ranging from a zip line to slides designed specifically to protect hearing-impaired kids. The work on the playground is set to begin Saturday and comes on the heels of the city of Medford receiving $559,117 in grants from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Commission. The grants will go toward the development of the Olsrud Family Community Playground and Cedar Links Park. The Medford Parks, Recreation and Facilities Department successfully applied for $490,017 in the large-grant award category for Cedar Links Park and $69,100 for the Olsrud playground through the state’s small-grant process. The Cedar Links grant, which is subject to City Council acceptance, helps the department complete the second and final development phase of the 5.5-acre neighborhood park off of Cedar Links Drive in northeast Medford. The funds will pay for the 2019 installation of playgrounds, a restroom, a basketball court, two dedicated pickleball courts, a small dog park and a community garden. Cedar Links Park is being built on a portion of the former site of a golf course, which is now being developed primarily for housing. The funding for the Olsrud Family Community Playground at Bear Creek Park goes toward accessibility features such as ramps, accessible zip lines and a buddy slide. Al Densmore , former legislator and Medford mayor, said that accessibility was one of the chief concerns of the playground remodel from the beginning. The original playground, constructed in 1987, was not compliant with standards from the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act. Densmore spoke of “the need to transform this from being a generally acceptable playground to be the very special place that this playground has always been, and then in addition make it accessible to a larger part of the population.” One example of that increased accessibility is in the design of the new slides: To better accommodate children who use cochlear implants to cope with deafness or hearing impairments, newly installed slides will not be made of plastic. Plastic slides generate static electricity, which can cause the implants to short out, requiring a visit to an audiologist to get the device to work again. The range of sounds produced by musical features on the new site will also be calibrated to be comfortable for children on the autism spectrum. And the structure will include swings designed for kids in wheelchairs. Assembly of the Olsrud playground begins Sept. 29 and is expected to include up to 2,000 community volunteers. The new playground replaces a 30-year-old community-constructed structure, increasing the playground square-footage from approximately 9,500 to 14,000. Other playground features include a spider bouncer trampoline, a down-and-back zip line, a wiggly rock wall, rope climbs, ladders and tunnels. Densmore said that organizers hope people will lend tools in addition to their time: drills and saws, for example, would help construction. “We promise we’ll get them back to you in the same or better condition,” he said. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has disbursed more than $50 million to communities for outdoor recreation projects since 1999. The grants are funded from voter-approved Oregon Lottery proceeds. The city of Medford has received nearly $2 million in local government grants from the state fund. U.S. Cellular Community Park, Lone Pine Park and Oregon Hills Park were previous grant-funded projects. Department staff members Bev Power, Tim Stevens and Haley Cox compiled and submitted the applications for the newly funded grants.