As you can see from this Oct. 24 photo, the new playground at Lehigh Park is a work in progress.
Exactly a year ago, the Albany City Council approved the purchase of a special kind of playground for installation at Lehigh Park. Now the city’s park maintenance crew is bolting the pieces together.
“Playground assembly is complex and has a lot of parts,” said Rick Barnett, Albany’s parks and facilities maintenance manager. “Think of it in terms of a semi-truck load of IKEA furniture with very exacting installation and safety standards and giant boxes of parts/bolts/screws and assorted pieces that each have an exact place that they go.”
I could see what he meant when I went by the park on a bike ride Thursday after the crew was gone for the day.
This is going to be a playground with a surface of antistatic and antimicrobial artificial grass and equipment designed for children with a wide range of disabilities. When I last wrote about it in October 2023, I described it this way:
“Besides the different surface, the project still calls for two traditional swings plus one that accommodates a caregiver and a child; a ‘group spinner’ that can be used by children using walkers or wheelchairs; sensory panels with sound, music, tactile activities and color; and a communication panel for children who have trouble with speech.”
The playground is costing just over $200,000, paid with $155,000 from the federal community development block grant program and about $50,000 in parks funds.
In an email Friday, Barnett told me that if the weather cooperates, the installation of playground equipment should be finished by the second week of November. Then the city will have to wait for a subcontractor for the manufacturer to install the turf.
Barnett hopes the place can have a “soft opening” around Thanksgiving. (hh)
Here are a few of the many pieces waiting to be installed.
I think that’s great for kids with disabilities. But too bad they’re getting such a late start. Probably won’t get much use from November to March.
This is off subject. Sorry. (The playground seems promising, though.)
Opened my paper copy of my Saturday Albany D-H (one of the 3-paper newspapers-a-week subscription). Saw on front page that “Obie out of Eugene” (that name rang a bell) is putting in a 75-room hotel and 92 “homes” (apartments, etc.). Quoting D-H, “the project will also feature” — “tavern, rooftop taco and margarita spot and secret bar, as well as a community kitchen, game area, fire pits, a grilling station, a fitness studio, a pet wash station, bike storage and resident parking.” Paper also says “it is an “$85 million investment in the city.”
The City is CORVALLIS. That makes more sense than if it were Albany, but, with Oregon State football now small-time ball, I don’t know that it is wise, but it is what it is, to use the too-often overused phrase. And, yes, it is the same Obie that at one time showed interest in buying 3 parking lots on Albany’s Water Street for building fancy hotels, etc. Oh, the article mentioned that Albany project but said no further details were available at this time. I hope no further details are ever available, as Corvallis and Albany are not Las Vegas or Miami!!
Considering Obie’s successes in different communities over the years, we will be incredibly lucky if they invest in Albany!
Obie projects with mixed use spaces has been very successful. Ya just get out more and enjoy the enjoyable spaces he has created in Eugene!
You don’t know if I travel to Eugene or not Stick to the facts and don’t assume people you don’t agree with are house-bound rubes!
And, addressing both you and Ray K., if Obie does a project on Water Street in Albany, the city will relieve them of most all fees and taxes to make it profitable for Obie and to justify Obie taking the risk of building in Albany, which is not a university town, by the way. That is, the taxpayers of Albany will prop up Obie’s investment.
You’re crossing bridges & burning them before we even get there… I stand by what I said.
If the shoe fits… At least Hasso gets out on his bike (and some infatuation with Jacksonville).