By: Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Among the many inconveniences brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic is the postponement of the installation of the new Dream Playground in Erickson Park in Port Angeles.
Originally scheduled for this month, organizers have been forced to push the half-million-dollar community build project to June of next year.
Parks and Recreation Director Corey Delikat and Dream Playground Foundation President Steve Methner joined the Todd Ortloff Show recently to talk about the impacts of the change of plans.
“The big issue with the Dream Playground is, it’s done as a community build. It’s like a…kind of like a big Amish barn raising. And we have dozens to hundreds of people on site all at one time, and there’s childcare, and there’s community meals and there’s sharing of tools and there’s all this stuff that would be just absolutely imperfect for doing it right now. And the other part of it was, restaurants were a big part of the effort last time because we fed people on site, and a different restaurant took that job on each day. And it’s really hard to go to our friends in the restaurant business right now and say ‘Hey, you know, we know you’re struggling to stay afloat. And by the way, can you can you feed several hundred people for free in August?'”
On the other hand, as Director of Parks and Rec, Corey Delikat says he’s taking advantage of the extra time to dial-in the plan.
“We can kind of re-evaluate here in the next couple months and look at when we’re going to take the playground down. It’ll give us some extra time to do that. Do some surveying, see what we need to do as far as dealing with the landscape structures and stuff like that. So it gives us a little more time, gives the Foundation little more time to fundraise. And so, hopefully it works out in the end where, when we do this build it’s something that way I can all come together after this pandemic and move forward.”
To see the plan and learn how you can donate or volunteer, visit padreamplayground.org.