The Maple Lawn building on Salem Avenue looked like this last Saturday afternoon.
What’s going to happen with Maple Lawn, the city-owned property at 1950 Salem Ave. S.E. that housed a preschool until last June? The short answer is that it will remain part of the Albany park system.
Until last year, the City of Albany operated the house and grounds as a preschool, the last three years with financial support from Albany schools. About 80 children were enrolled when the school district announced last March it could no longer afford the expense and the operation would end with the school year in June.
AÂ bike ride took me past the place last Saturday, and this made me wonder what if anything had been decided about the property’s future.
Here’s what Parks and Recreation Director Kim Lyddane told me via email:
“Maple Lawn is currently getting a little TLC after being used for a pre-school for almost 40 years. The space will house additional recreational programming starting in the spring. We needed to go through and make some modifications (as well as new paint and flooring) in order to accommodate new types of recreational programming.”
Just what type of recreational programming? Lyddane didn’t elaborate.
IÂ wondered whether the house and two-acre lot might be declared surplus to the city’s needs and thus become subject to the council’s new policy on disposing of surplus land.
“Maple Lawn was gifted to the City with specific conditions that it be used for Parks & Recreation or library activities,” Lyddane wrote. “As a result, it is a property you will not see on a surplus list for as long as I can imagine.”
The nice little playground behind the house was unused when I looked at it Saturday, but the fence around it wasn’t locked.
“The playground is open year-round to community members,” Lyddane wrote. “It was never just a preschool playground. But there was a time when we needed to lock it off in the evenings as we were dealing with a significant uptick in transient behaviors. Thankfully, we were able to get that area squared away so that was only temporary.”
If you’re a family with young kids in the Willamette Neighborhood, that playground is worth checking out. (hh)
The playground at Maple Lawn remains open to the public, though no one was there on Saturday afternoon.
The future of Maple Lawn? Just checking
The Maple Lawn building on Salem Avenue looked like this last Saturday afternoon.
What’s going to happen with Maple Lawn, the city-owned property at 1950 Salem Ave. S.E. that housed a preschool until last June? The short answer is that it will remain part of the Albany park system.
Until last year, the City of Albany operated the house and grounds as a preschool, the last three years with financial support from Albany schools. About 80 children were enrolled when the school district announced last March it could no longer afford the expense and the operation would end with the school year in June.
AÂ bike ride took me past the place last Saturday, and this made me wonder what if anything had been decided about the property’s future.
Here’s what Parks and Recreation Director Kim Lyddane told me via email:
“Maple Lawn is currently getting a little TLC after being used for a pre-school for almost 40 years. The space will house additional recreational programming starting in the spring. We needed to go through and make some modifications (as well as new paint and flooring) in order to accommodate new types of recreational programming.”
Just what type of recreational programming? Lyddane didn’t elaborate.
IÂ wondered whether the house and two-acre lot might be declared surplus to the city’s needs and thus become subject to the council’s new policy on disposing of surplus land.
“Maple Lawn was gifted to the City with specific conditions that it be used for Parks & Recreation or library activities,” Lyddane wrote. “As a result, it is a property you will not see on a surplus list for as long as I can imagine.”
The nice little playground behind the house was unused when I looked at it Saturday, but the fence around it wasn’t locked.
“The playground is open year-round to community members,” Lyddane wrote. “It was never just a preschool playground. But there was a time when we needed to lock it off in the evenings as we were dealing with a significant uptick in transient behaviors. Thankfully, we were able to get that area squared away so that was only temporary.”
If you’re a family with young kids in the Willamette Neighborhood, that playground is worth checking out. (hh)
The playground at Maple Lawn remains open to the public, though no one was there on Saturday afternoon.
Tags: Albany City properties, Albany parks, former preschool, Maple Lawn, not surplus property, parks and recreation