Next two phases of Greenfield City Park's playground have been ordered

GREENFIELD — The pieces for the second and third phases of the Greenfield City Park playground project are on order, according to a report heard by the Greenfield City Council at last Tuesday night’s meeting.

The first phase of the project was completed late last fall and is a smaller scale climbing structure. It saw its first real use this summer when area parks saw a slightly delayed open June 1 to the season due to COVID-19.

In mid June, Jennifer Garside of the Greater Greenfield Community Foundation reported that the project, funded by private donations, grants and some funding from the city, was in need of about $9,000 to meet its funding goal for ordering the mega structure, the second phase of the project. But now, the city has the funds to take care of the mega structure and the Tot’s Choice piece, which is designed for younger children.

“We’re excited about the two new phases,” said City Clerk Becky Haase. “The equipment should be here the middle of October. Whether that actually gets installed before winter, I don’t know. It will depend on whatever else the city guys have to do. I know they have a lot of trees that need to come down this year, so it may not happen until next spring.”

The city park playground project began because of the previous equipment’s age, its lack of appeal to the community’s current needs, and safety concerns. For example, the slides on the previous equipment were unable to be used because they were broken and were eventually removed.

“From what little I have heard, I think people really like [the improvements]. Some of the comments I’ve seen on social media about the new equipment, I think people are going to like the fact that this new mega structure has three or four slides,” Haase said. “When the slide on the old structure finally broke and had to be removed, that was what people were really missing from the park. There wasn’t much of a slide.”

Real estate

In other news, the city council did not receive any bids for the vacant lot they were hoping to sell at 102 SW 3rd St.

A number of factors were discussed as to why no takers came forward, among them the fact that building materials may cost more right now and are harder to get due to several natural disasters lately.

Other news

• approved a third pay application to Godberson-Smith for the street project in the amount of $579,147.07.

• approved and accepted the fiscal year 2020 street finance report. This is a yearly report that is submitted to the Department of Transportation. It shows road use tax funds, and last year, the city received $254,000 in those funds, which can be used for the salaries of people who primarily do street work, sweeping the streets, street lights, repairing and maintaining streets, and removal of trees in the right-of-ways. With the funds come a requirement that as much of them be spent as possible. This year, Greenfield carries $2,600 over to the new fiscal year. The city also spent approximately $145,000 on streets out of its General Fund.

• discussed conducting a general resident survey that can help general planning for the community asking residents what they feel is going well and what they feel needs improvement. City Hall will work on such a survey and it will be released later this month by mail accompanying an update to residents on codes that have recently been revamped by the city council.