by Dennis Dalman
With bouquets of verbal praise, the Sartell City Council signed on to a proposal to create an all-inclusive playground in Lions Community Park in Sartell.
An all-inclusive playground is one that is meticulously designed to make it accessible and functional for all children, including those who have special needs and physical challenges.
At their Oct. 10 meeting, council members voted to contribute $65,000 to the playground, plus $27,000 in in-kind city construction costs for the facility. The city also agreed to issue a letter of intent to give $110,000 toward the project. That is because the city’s intent would virtually guarantee a $100,000 grant from Lions Club International, which requires that projects be fully funded before a grant is given. Once the grant is given, the city would be off the hook for the added $110,000 amount.
The city’s contribution for the playground would come from the city’s regional half-cent sales tax, according to Rob Voshell, Sartell financial director.
The council members all agreed the regional all-inclusive playground will be a good amenity for children who live in the city and those who live beyond.
“It’s a great project,” said member Jeff Kolb, who noted he is a president of the Sauk Rapids Lions Club.
“It’s a regional need,” said member Jill Smith.
“It’s a great addition to our city,” member Tim Elness said. “It has a lot of community support, and the city can definitely work with the Lions (clubs’ members).”
Mayor Ryan Fitzthum called the proposal “a great example of a public-private partnership.”
Before the vote to approve it, LeSauk Township Lions member Jim Muellenbach presented to the council an overview of the playground plan.
It’s been three years in the making, Muellenbach said. The closest all-inclusive playground is 60 miles away – in Willmar, he said.
The plan for the playground in Sartell has been a labor of love by three Lions Clubs: the Sartell one, the LeSauk one and the St. Stephen one, with full endorsement from the Sartell-St. Stephen School District. There are about 100 members, all told, in those three Lions clubs.
Costs involved
Total cost for the project is $340,000, Muellenbach told the council.
The Lions club members did extensive research on sites for an all-inclusive playground in Sartell and came to the conclusion that the Lions Community Park in central Sartell (across Pinecone Road from Sartell City Hall) would be the best site – partly because that park was always designed so the sight-impaired and people with physical challenges could enjoy it.
That park was developed by the Lions years ago with those challenges in mind. There is a playground there now, but it is not amenable to children of challenged abilities.
At the Oct. 10 Sartell City Council meeting, advocates of a new playground spoke up for the proposal.
One of them, via a video presentation, was Cari Hanson, a Sartell mother who wants her young son, Daniel, to be able to have fun on the Lions Community Park playground without hindrances. Daniel loves to go to the current playground, she said, but there are many hurdles to his having a good time.
Another speaker was Zach Dingmann, principal of Riverview Intermediate School, who is also a Sartell Lions Club member.
Last spring, Dingmann said, several grade-school students approached him and told him how a friend of theirs, who happens to rely on a wheelchair, cannot join them in playground fun. Dingmann told the city council he has worked in two other school districts, neither of which has inclusive playgrounds. When he talked with those three young students, they all came up with ideas for fundraising for an all-inclusive playground. And Dingmann said he immediately thought if students were eager to raise funds for it, why not adults?
The motto of Lions clubs, Dingmann said, is “We Serve.”
What tugs at his heart, he told the council, is that an all-inclusive playground “serves the kids.”
Here is a breakdown of the costs for the all-inclusive playground:
Total cost of the project is $340,000. The three local Lions clubs have raised $139,000 through community fundraisers, and as of this December the three Lions’ clubs will have $160,000 in cash in the bank based on updated fund pledges.
In addition, there has been two pledges, each of $50,000, Muellenbach said – one from an individual, the other from Sartell Pediatrics in Sartell. There have also been thousands of dollars contributed from individuals and groups. Seventeen Lions clubs have contributed $21,000.
If all goes well, construction of the all-inclusive playground could start as early as the spring and summer of 2023.
The current playground at Lions Community Park will be replaced by a new one, which will feature inclusive equipment and an underlayer of rubbery no-slip surface.
Sartell City Administrator Anna Gruber noted in the future there will likely be more parking options as well as a handicapped bathroom facility at the all-inclusive playground site.
