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New playground equipment installed at Mauthe Park
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Struthers Mayor Terry Stocker tries out a newly installed sliding board at the city’s Mauthe Park. The playground equipment was installed last week, thanks in part to funding from the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s NatureWorks grant program.
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
STRUTHERS
The newly installed playground equipment at Mauthe Park includes a tantalizing assortment of sliding boards, climbing ladders and monkey bars.
Terry Stocker and Ed Wildes should know.
The city’s mayor and safety-service director, respectively, tried it out for themselves Monday.
Both said they were pleased with the purchase, which totaled $26,000 and was 75 percent funded by the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s NatureWorks grant program. The city’s share was 25 percent, or $6,500.
“It helps to enhance the rest of the park,” Stocker said of the playground, which is geared toward age 5 to 12. “It gives kids a place to exercise and to have fun.”
Wildes added that the current equipment at the park — two swing sets and a sliding board — was given a fresh coat of paint as well.
The playground-equipment upgrades at Mauthe have been a couple of years in the making, noted Gary Diorio, project manager for MS Consultants of Youngstown. Diorio said the city had applied for the NatureWorks grant at least once before, and that receiving it was a matter of being in “the right place at the right time,” as there is only so much funding to go around.
According to ODNR’s website, the grant has funded approximately 1,300 applications totaling about $63 million since its inception more than 20 years ago. Grant money is available to cities, townships, villages and the like, and they must be used for the acquisition, development and rehabilitation of recreational areas.
The Alliance-based David Williams & Associates, which specializes in park and recreation equipment, was the project’s successful bidder. The city received the grant agreement in March. Work began Wednesday and concluded Thursday.
Stocker said he and other city officials, including members of council, worked together to determine which pieces of equipment — from hundreds of options — would be installed at the playground. Per the grant guidelines, the city also had to lay 12 inches of mulch around the equipment to reduce injuries and construct a handicapped-accessible walkway, among other specifications.
Additional grant money funded the purchase of a freestanding piece of equipment: a twisted ladder. The city is responsible for maintaining all of the equipment, Stocker added.
He said the city tries to make improvements to Mauthe Park each year, and that its use remains steady. “It’s come a long way,” the mayor said.