Choose your own playground adventure.
That’s the idea behind the City of Sequim’s latest effort to seek citizen input on updating and adding new playground equipment in Carrie Blake Community Park, Margaret Kirner Park and Dr. Standard Little League Park.
A giant Sasquatch, fossilized play structures in the vein of the Manis mastodon, an octopus, a mitt and baseball, swings and four-person seesaws make up some of the nine designs city staff and consultants with RRM Designs Group have proposed.
A community survey on the redesign options is available on the city’s website at sequimwa.gov/1098/Inclusive-Playgrounds-Redesign through Sept. 30. The survey can also be found on QR codes posted in each city park.
City staff emphasized that the redesigns will be inclusive and universally accessible so that people of all ages and abilities can use the amenities.
City councilor Rachel Anderson said at the July 24 council meeting that she’s been playing at the Carrie Blake playground since she was a child and now with her own children and feels “the thought of upgrades and change is very exciting.”
Designs
The public survey is the third part of a planned process, said April Miller, project manager for RRM Design Group, in a video presentation to the city council.
After the public input period, city staff would then seek grant funding, develop construction documents, advertise and award a construction contract, and manage construction.
Carrie Blake
In Carrie Blake Community Park, Miller said the designs would unify the structures so children of all ages could be cared for/watched better by caretakers between structures. The city would also look to expand the play area on the north side by the swings and smaller structure.
The existing play area is aging and coming to the end of its service life, and the swing set isn’t Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible, Miller said.
The first concept is titled “Sunshine” for its theme with a variety of swing areas, slides, climbers, and a four-person seesaw. The “Kaleidoscope” concept offers a range of experiences with outdoor musical instruments and play structure rocks to climb. The third concept “Waterway” is a nod to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and nautical life with sea life play structures.
The concepts would cost about $2.1 million-$2.2 million in today’s dollars, consultants estimate, and could be about $300,000-$500,000 more in three years.
Margaret Kirner
Similar to Carrie Blake, Miller said they’d look to better unify the play structures in Margaret Kirner Park, and they’d make the structures accessible as both parks do not have ADA-accessible surfaces. Its play equipment is also near the end of its life span too, she said.
Its three design concepts are called “Geo,” with a variety of play areas using a hexagonal shape pattern “Chutes and Ladders” with ladders and slides, and “The Ancients” that encourages discovery with large fossil play areas.
The projects would cost about $950,000 to $1.2 million in today’s dollars, and about $200,000 to $300,000 more in three years, consultants estimate.
Little League Park
The Doctor Standard Little League Park is in need of a play area, Miller said, and with parking lot renovations underway city staff and consultants wanted the structure away from foul ball territory and construction. A proposed structure would go in a clearing near the wooded area east of the concession stand.
Its concepts largely follow a baseball theme with the first “Field of Dreams” concept offering a mitt for climbing, swings, spinner and a climbing structure. “Play Ball” includes a challenge course, a giant baseball, seesaw, swings and play panels. The “Forest Creature” concept incorporates a large Sasquatch structure connected to a net climbing structure, spinner and a seesaw.
The concepts range from about $300,000-$600,000 in cost and about $100,000-$200,000 more in three years, consultants estimate.
Miller said it’s common at the alternatives level for the public to have favorite elements from different concepts and they’ll use input from the survey to develop a preferred plan.
Sequim parks manager Hannah Merrill said the designs will account for sun fading and permeable surfaces.
She added that with the focus on universal use structures and areas, people of all ages can better interact, such as on a “friendship swing” that allows a child and caretaker to swing together.
Funding
Asked about funding and what’s the first park of emphasis, Merrill said Carrie Blake Community Park receives the most use, but the Little League park would be the “lowest hanging fruit” to fund and construct.
“I’m excited to go after as much funding as possible,” she said, to add additional attractions that highlight Sequim.
City officials would seek funding for the playgrounds next spring, she said, with a tentative turnaround for use the following spring, Merrill said.
With cost estimates in place, she said the city has better positioning in the grant funding cycle, and Miller’s firm helped suggest more funding avenues to explore, too.
Prior to the consultant’s cost estimates, city staff proposed as a placeholder in Sequim’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) $450,000 (with about $113,000 from the city and about $338,000 from grants) annually from 2025-2027 to fund new park projects.
According to a city staff report, “staff will need to aggressively pursue outside funding to accomplish the projects” as “playground site work, surfacing, landscape and irrigation, equipment, and installation is costly and outpaces the current projected costs.”
“Without grant funding the city is unable to execute these projects,” city staff wrote.
RRM Design Group was contracted $49,845 for its work with the city.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ City of Sequim officials seek community input via an online survey on potential playground redesigns on three city parks, including Carrie Blake Community Park, pictured, Margaret Kirner Park, and Dr. Standard Little League Park. They’ll use the designs to seek grant funding.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash Four-year-old JoJo Towarak of Sequim climbs a playground structure in Carrie Blake Community Park on Aug. 11 with her brother and grandparents. City of Sequim officials seek community input on potential redesigns of playgrounds in three city parks in order to seek grant funding.
