Play area gets boost

April 10, 2007

By John R. Moses

Frontiersman

TALKEETNA - The drive to build a new playground in Talkeetna picked up speed last month when the Mat-Su Borough Assembly approved a $10,000 bed tax grant to cover site planning.

Organizer Karey Larson said that if this group's experience is anything like that of a group that built a similar playground in Girdwood, it isn't unreasonable to work toward breaking ground by next summer.

&#8220I'm feeling great,” she said of the group's progress.

The borough will pick the playground location and most likely will go with the community's preference for land near the Talkeetna Library. The library site itself is undergoing a plan review in preparation for eventual construction.

The assembly also decided March 20 to buy the playground equipment at a later date using the Capital Improvement Fund.

Organizers will meet April 11 to continue discussing what kind of playground structure - treated wood or prefabricated plastic - would be best for the area's weather extremes.

The bed tax grant was one of many approved for the upper Susitna Valley. The grants are designed to offset the impacts of tourism. Talkeetna's popular ball field will get some work, as will a sidewalk outside the Talkeetna Historical Society museum.

The upper Su Valley received more than $60,000 worth of grant funds. The grants come in the form of a reimbursement and are paid to organizations when they submit a receipt for services or materials.

Fund raising at the local level is moving forward.

The Earth Day Festival is April 21, and the playground committee will have a booth at the event inside the Upper Susitna Senior Center. The committee will also have a booth at the Moose Dropping Festival, Talkeetna's annual weekend of fun and games July 14-15.

The playground committee last month was leaning toward using composite materials rather than wood, according to its minutes.

A leading playground designer is Leathers & Associates, which specializes in working with communities to design unique play structures, often involving local artists. Leathers playgrounds often use a lot of treated wood.

Some on the committee members had concerns last month about how flexible Leathers would be about materials.

Larson said yesterday that Leathers has a recycled plastic material that looks like wood, and the committee would prefer recycled plastic because wood has to have a protective coating applied each year.

If Leathers is chosen, the next step is paying for a company employee to go to Talkeetna and work with the community to define its needs. That service costs $950, not counting travel and lodging for the playground consultant.

The playground committee will meet at 6 p.m. April 11 in the Talkeetna Roadhouse Café on Main Street in Downtown Talkeetna.