County at risk of losing up to $500,000 on playground if council does not commit to another $400,000…
The Harrison County Parks Board has decided to ask the county for an additional funds for playground improvements. After receiving a one million dollar grant from the Harrison County Community Foundation (HCCF) and $1.5 million from the county, the new playgrounds for Buffalo Trace and Gresham Park are fully funded, but the inclusive playground at Hayswood Park is still in need of $400,000. For more context on this, we recommend reading our report of the Harrison County Council meeting earlier in the week.
Parks superintendent Larry Shickles gave three options to the Parks Board:
“Do you want to continue with the inclusive playground, that’s option A, don’t do it at all. Option B is you go attempt to get the $400,000 from the county commissioners and council, everything stays on track. Or option 3 is, we sit back down with the engineers and we redesign it and see what comes out of this…we have to understand is…we probably lose part of that manufacturing deposit, we’re going to hit price increases.”
Board member Greg Reas asked Shickles if they had received a written commitment from the HCCF for the $1.4 million that was originally asked for. Shickles said no, they received written commitment for one million after their application was reviewed by the HCCF board.
Parks Board vice-president Scott Fluhr then said that
“this is not the first time that the Foundation has took somebody down the aisle up to the altar and then pulled the rug out from under them.”
Parks board presidentTeresa Sutton asked the public for comments and one audience member asked “is it going to cost the county more to not do the project than it would be to ask for the $400,000 and continue on?”
Shickles answered that the Parks Department has “had to pay just under $500,000 on the deposit to start the project…some of that we’ll get back, some of it we won’t.”
Board member Carolyn Lowe made the motion to request the $400,000 from the county, which resulted in a stand-off between Reas and Fluhr to second. Earlier in the week, Fluhr insisted he was not interested in asking the county for the money, but ended up seconding the motion, approving the request to the council.