{"id":9492,"date":"2024-01-09T16:34:58","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T16:34:58","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"White-Park-new-playground-funding-approved-by-Concord-City-Council-53634097\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=9492","title":{"rendered":"Fully accessible playground at White Park gets funding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Now<\/a>
Now that Concord City Council has approved funds for a new Monkey Around Playground at White Park, a years-long project is one step closer to realization.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Construction on the city\u2019s first fully accessible playground at White Park\u00a0is expected to begin later this year after\u00a0the Concord City Council approved funding\u00a0Monday night.<\/p>\n

Plans for the Monkey Around Playground include ramps, a wheelchair-accessible swing and merry-go-round and solid surfacing underneath, according to Parks and Recreation Director David Gill. With the funding sign-off, construction is currently targeted to begin in the late fall of this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought that we will have an all-inclusive playground in place by the end of this year is just tremendous,\u201d said Jonathan Smith, chair of the Friends of White Park. \u201cWe obviously think White Park is very special in and of itself, but the thought of having a playground that does work for everybody is exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The volunteer group has worked to\u00a0gather community input,\u00a0guide the design\u00a0and\u00a0raise funds throughout the life of the project.\u00a0Deodonne Dustin Bhattarai, a board member of the Friends of White Park, spoke at Monday\u2019s meeting alongside her nine-year-old son Bodhi, who uses a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all really excited that we\u2019ve gotten to this point in the project \u2014 it\u2019s been a number of years that we\u2019ve all been working on this,\u201d Bhattarai said.<\/p>\n

Bodhi spoke to councilors last May about the importance of making playgrounds more accessible and inclusive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love ice skating at White Park, but I don\u2019t really go there in the summer because I can\u2019t play on the playground,\u201d Bodhi said in his testimony, noting that the woodchips around the playground are not an accessible surface. \u201cI want playgrounds to be accessible because it would be really cool to play whenever I want, with anyone I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, the closest fully accessible playground to Bodhi is in Nashua.<\/p>\n

With few accessible playgrounds in the state and none in the city, Gill said, the project will only expand White Park\u2019s regional attraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the city to have its first all-inclusive playground is important for the entire community,\u201d Gill said.<\/p>\n

Now in its 30th year, the current Monkey Around Playground was built in 1994 with donations and community labor and was expected to last about 20 years. A new playground has been on the horizon for more than a decade, and the city formally got moving on replacement plans in 2018.<\/p>\n

Councilors unanimously approved $350,000 of city funds to join the $50,000 of community donations in matching a $400,000 Land and Water Conservation grant. The $50,000 includes $42,000 from the Friends of White Park, $3,000 from the Black Ice Pond Hockey Association and $5,000 from an anonymous donor, City Manager Thomas Aspell noted to councilors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who volunteered on the original Monkey Around Playground all those many years ago and who has watched it exceed its projected lifespan,\u201d Mayor Byron Champlin said,\u00a0\u201cit\u2019s gratifying to see it finally come to fruition.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Construction on the city\u2019s first fully accessible playground at White Park\u00a0is expected to begin later this year after\u00a0the Concord City Council approved funding\u00a0Monday night.Plans for the Monkey Around Playground include ramps, a wheelchair-accessible…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":9493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=93]Catherine McLaughlin[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[508,12],"tags":[94,505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[553],"class_list":["post-9492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-headlines-cm","category-town-city-government","tag-concord-nh","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/42654262-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9494,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions\/9494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=9492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}