By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
WALDPORT – In a flurry of activity spanning three days this week, dozens of volunteers banded together to help erect what is being touted as the largest playground on the Oregon coast at Louis Southworth Park.
The trouble now will be keeping half-pint thrill-seekers who see the shimmering oasis of fun from descending upon it before the final touches are finished.
And that may take a while because of the changing season.
“I hope that we will be able to open the playground itself sometime this fall,” said Waldport city manager Dann Cutter. “I just don’t know when. And my big concern is we’re not going to be able to pour the surface, and that the playground equipment will be sitting there for six months before we get good weather again. That will kill people.”
While the multi-colored 14,000 square-foot playground with its 15 slides, six swings, merry-go-rounds and spinning rope tower is the eye-catcher, the preparation work alone required a pad of crushed rock perforated with 258 holes for placing the equipment’s supports. All those now have to be filled with concrete.
A paved road to the playground still needs to go in, as well as 4-foot-high fence around the area. There will also need to be a secondary temporary fence to keep people out of the rest of the 14-acre park as construction continues on everything from restrooms to pickle ball and basketball courts and a dog park.
But it is the pour-in-place rubberized pad below the playground that for now most concerns Cutter.
“The problem is that the temperature has to be within a certain boundary,” Cutter said. “Well, it’s Waldport. When’s the last time you saw a week where we had the same temperature boundary at any given time? So, it becomes more complicated.”
Helping to install the playground was a seven-member team from PlayCore, who are mostly based in Alabama and led by Tom Norquist, the company’s senior vice president of innovation.
“This is an amazing project,” Norquist said. “And this community is building something that will last and be a wonderful place for citizens of different abilities and ages to come and have family time and experience joyful play. It’s really special.”
Norquist described the playground as “huge” and said it is “a mini-theme park that will be open to the community for free.”
Norquiest learned about the project from Oregon’s GameTime representative, the company that manufactures the equipment, which is a subsidiary of PlayCore. He then made a special trip to Waldport to meet with Cutter and contractor Jay Morris.
Morris volunteered himself and his crew at Jay Morris Construction – at the behest of his city councilor daughter Jayme Morris – to do the site prep and erect the playground.
“I sat down and talked to them and helped them understand how big and complex of an installation this is that they were taking on,” Norquist said. “But in doing so, they’ve been bringing wonderful volunteers from the community. We even had a good group of Coast Guard folks from Newport. Great guys who really worked hard.”
Volunteers help assemble
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday up to 30 volunteers poured over the site – reading plans, sorting nuts, bolts and washers and putting together the hundreds of pieces that comprise the playground sets. The PlayCore staff left Wednesday night and Morris’ crews hoped to finish bolting everything together by early next week.
Cutter chuckled when he recalled how Jayme Morris roped her father into volunteering his company’s labor for the project.
“She just told him he was going to put the playground together,” he said. “So we are paying for materials only. He and his crew are doing it as a volunteer project. And it’s a little bit more than he signed up for.”
Almost $20,000 in crushed rock and more than $10,000 in concrete along with lag bolts and everything else a foundation requires have gone into supporting the structure. And then there were those 258 holes that had to be framed by cardboard tubes and placed just right before the supports went in.
“I think he (Morris) was surprised by how much there was to it,” Cutter said. “But he’s done an amazing job. When Tom (Norquist) came he said that this was done immaculately. They were very happy and surprised at how well it’s been prepped for the installation.”
To pay for the playground and the park’s other amenities, the city received a $750,000 Oregon Parks grant; a $100,000 Travel Oregon grant; $50,000 from the Oregon Coast Visitor’s Association; and $130,000 from the Noble Carlton Foundation for a total of $1.03 million.
It is not going to be enough.
Expenditures so far sit at $705,000 with another $240,000 encumbered for various contracts for a total of $945,000 – which leaves just $85,000. By Cutter’s back-of-the-envelope estimate, that falls about $300,000 to $350,000 short of what is needed to complete the park.
Cutter is hoping, and asking for vendors and volunteers to step forward to help cover the gap. The city council will also discuss lifting its moratorium on memorial benches to help pay for seating around the playground.
“We are a tax-deductible entity, so if people want to come and do work, if people want to come and donate we will give them a certificate for the donated value,” Cutter said. “They can write it off on their taxes.”
When all is said and done the park will have restrooms, lights, pickleball courts, a basketball court, four covered eating areas, a pavilion, combination dog park and timber competition area, walking track and trails to the playground, benches and seats around the playground, and likely a combination radio-controlled vehicle course combined with a bicycle pump track.
Cutter acknowledged it is a bigger project than anyone imagined because there are so many moving pieces to it and only a couple of city staffers to make sure everything happens.
When the park will be completed is anyone’s guess. But Cutter said there will be substantial completion of major elements by this fall and that the park will absolutely be finished by next summer.
“It’s how the little pieces get done to open portions of the park that I’m just not sure of,” he said. “And it’s just a matter of figuring it out. Bathrooms I think is going to be our biggest obstacle. Bathrooms are what I’m going to tell the council I need to prioritize.”
- Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com
Waldport is mostly retired people. How does spending a million dollars for kids who don’t exist justify this amount of money? We need streets repaired, not playgrounds
This was not an either or situation. “To pay for the playground and the park’s other amenities, the city received a $750,000 Oregon Parks grant; a $100,000 Travel Oregon grant; $50,000 from the Oregon Coast Visitor’s Association; and $130,000 from the Noble Carlton Foundation for a total of $1.03 million.”
Maybe this way they trying to bring the younger generation back to town. If there is nothing for younger generations to stay, everyone will move out.
I am a mom who moved here over a year ago. I have found and was surprised by the number of kid and families who live here and there’s only one park in Waldport and it’s got 2 swings and monkey bars. The children and families in this community deserve a better park and space. There are plenty of community spaces and events for the retirement community who live here as well.
I agree the size and scope is a little overkill for this size of community but there are literally thousands of children who live in Waldport and the surrounding area outside of Waldport that struggle to drive the distances required to play at parks in Newport etc. The park will encourage more families to stay, live, and work in Waldport. Even possibly convince families to move and contribute to Waldport businesses, thus bringing in more money to our town which can help pay for any streets that need repairs. I personally haven’t struggled to drive around town because of streets falling apart. Even if there were some streets in need of repair, I would not mind putting up with some inconvenience so that children have a safe and fun place to spend time outdoors and get exercise.
Everyone can get their needs met without assuming that it’s not needed. An attitude of “lack” will only bring about more lack.
We should encourage these projects to be done with a hopeful and positive attitude towards the future and encourage sound financial decision making even if we ultimately cannot control the outcome of the decision. Even if in the end it does end up costing the community too much money. If you ever need a ride somewhere I’m happy to take you so you don’t have to drive around on the delapitated streets 😉
I think it’s great that we are finally putting kids first again. Waldport has the school that teaches most of the South County school aged kids. And yes we do house many retired folks. I’m one of them. I was skeptical at first, too. Now, Im on the team for that playground project. It’s been a life changing experience for me. I enjoy helping wherever I can when it concerns KIDS FIRST. This has been a wonderful opportunity for our community and our younger people.
Thank you to Dan Cutter and the entire city council for making this happen! I’m so proud to live in Waldport!
Dear designers, builders, funders, concerned parents/caregivers:
Please consider installing clear plastic panels in those looong, solid blue tubes. No way would I send my grandchild (or a child in my care) into that narrow unknown space. Who knows what dangerous or nasty surprises might be in there? Looks big enough to sleep in and various critters might try to rest in that dry space, leaving who knows what yucky debris behind.
I would also recommend several security cameras, if they are not already in place, both for security and insurance reasons.
It is good to see spaces for children to interact with each other.
I hope dog owners will respect that and keep it a neutral space without assuming that every child wants to interact with your dogs, too.