Funding found for playground
New structure ordered after existing Hall Beach equipment deemed unsafe
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, July 11, 2016
SANIRAJAK/HALL BEACH
One new playground structure is coming right up for the young folk of Hall Beach, thanks to a variety of funding that flowed to the project over the past few months.
Hall Beach senior administrative officer Kimberley Young, left, and resident Jennifer Currie stand next to the playground structure that was deemed unsafe by government officials. It will soon be torn down and replaced thanks to funding from a variety of sources. - photo courtesy of Jennifer Currie |
"We have all the funding in place. The money has been sent to PlayWorks and it's being manufactured right now," said Hall Beach resident Jennifer Currie.
Back in March, Currie was worried the children of the community would have no place to play.
After an inspection by a territorial government environmental health officer in October, during which two structures - one on hamlet land and one on school land - were critically assessed and deemed unsafe, both were scheduled for demolition.
The playground structures are side by side, next to the school, serving as a recess-time play zone and as a community play area.
The hamlet council had agreed to put up to $30,000 of capital block funding aside specifically for a deposit on one new playground structure.
"(We've) applied for and researched many grants, 50-plus grants have been looked into, to cover the remaining costs. However, we have run into many barriers due to our location, lack of businesses in our area and short timeline," Currie stated on the GoFundMe fundraising site.
Seventeen people contributed a total of $1,740 through the GoFundMe page.
But the best news came from the approval of an application for a Government of Nunavut sports and recreation grant.
"When we first applied for a grant in November/December, we were pretty hopeful we were going to get that. But we didn't. That was a letdown. Then we had a lot of doubts that it would actually happen because we had a lot of struggles finding a funding source. Once we found this sports and rec grant we became fairly confident that it would be happening," Currie told Nunavut News/North.
"We applied for a grant from them and got $92,000 towards the playground structure," said the hamlet's senior administrative officer Kimberley Young, who has worked with Currie on the playground project.
"They were great to work with."
Currie says all the funds combined "is pretty much exactly what we needed in order to get this playground."
A PlayWorks supervisor will travel to Hall Beach.
"That will determine when the actual install can begin. We're aiming for mid-September," said Currie.
The play structure will be trucked from the United States to Edmonton, and then flown to Hall Beach - at a cost of $12,000 - before the supervisor arrives.
"While that's all happening we will have the old play structure removed either by a volunteer work force or we will post signs locally and ask for local labour to help us pull out the old playground," said Young.
"A lot of it is breaking and dangerous at this point, so it will go to our metal recycling dump."
As for the children, they are pleased.
"Less than half an hour after Kimberley let me know we were successful in getting the grant I posted on our community Facebook page and everybody was very excited. The kids are very excited. I've spoken to a lot of the kids when we've been out playing and going out for walks and every child I've asked if they know they're getting a new playground ... they're very excited," said Currie.
Young adds, "They know it's coming."
The other structure, which is on government property, is also slated for removal.
"We were told we are possibly on a list of communities to have their playground updated," said Young.
