North Battleford council members have voted to support in principle to a natural learning space park in the city.
But that is about as far as they went Monday night at council, as city officials still have a lot of work ahead to determine what the park will cost, how it would be funded, and also where it should go.
The concept was presented by the Battlefords Early Childhood Intervention Program, or ECIP, at council’s last meeting June 12. Such a park would differ from a traditional playground by featuring as many natural elements as possible such as sand, water, wood, plants and boulders.
At the June 12 meeting, proponents from ECIP suggested Central Park near the library would be a good location for such a park.
But according to a memo from Director of Leisure Services Bill Samborski, such an effort would not be an inexpensive undertaking. Samborski’s memo reports that costs could run well into the six-figure range. Confederation Park in Calgary was estimated at $500,000.
At the moment $50,000 is budgeted in the Capital Plan for 2018 and again in 2019 for the Centennial Park and Boys and Girls Club playground structures.
In the discussion at council, City Manager Jim Puffalt said the ballpark estimate for pricing would be around $250,000.
“With that amount of money, obviously budget is an issue for us,” said Puffalt. “So we think we need to refer it to budget.”
As for the play structure at Centennial Park, it is also the one in line for replacement in the near future. Administration officials believe it could be a logical location for a natural space park for that reason, as there is already some money earmarked for the project.
Mayor Ryan Bater commented that when he heard the presentation about natural play spaces, his thought immediately went to Centennial Park as a location as well.
Bater called it “the most important park in the urban area of the city, not including the Battlefords River Valley, which is another obvious location.”
Councillor Kelli Hawtin suggested perhaps ECIP could take on the project themselves, perhaps even 100 per cent, and fundraise and find sponsors for it.
In any event, city administration indicated this would be the start of the dialogue with the proponents on the whole idea.
Council ended up voted in favour of the resolution to support a natural play spaces park in principle only, with no commitment to location, and to encourage a more detailed proposal from the proponents including the desired park size, amenities, estimated cost and fundraising commitments prior to making any further decisions. That resolution carried unanimously.
