The Vashon Park District has been awarded a $175,000 Youth and Amateur Sports Grant (YASG) from King County to re-develop the playground at Ober Park. The grant will help fulfill a “playground for all” concept to replace the current structures and serve the island’s children as well as seniors and people with disabilities.

The board has discussed ideas for the park for several months. Commissioners Karen Gardner and Abby Antonelis have led the effort, starting the conversation last fall about remaking the park into a place for all people.

Renovating the playground is an objective in the district’s strategic plan and was estimated to begin in 2020, but the failure of last month’s operations and maintenance levy has delayed some of the district’s aspirations for upgrades to its facilities.

In February, the district hired architecture firm MacLeod Reckord to prepare two different concepts of the park for the district. One envisioned how the full $250,000 grant could transform the existing playground. The other was intended to honor the park’s potential and what it could become over time.

In a phone conversation, Antonelis expressed her excitement for the grant, acknowledging that commissioners will have to consider how to build the playground with the funds available to them.

“[We will] design our playground for all to maximize the impact with the money that we have received,” she said.

Earlier this year, the district approved the creation of a project contingency as well as spending $68,000 for engineering costs should the project move forward. They planned to further discuss the award at their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, after press time.

Among the ideas for the park floated by commissioners is removing the sidewalk between both the small and large areas of the park and creating one play space that would include recreation equipment accessible to people with disabilities.

Commissioners also contemplated installing three accessible exercise stations around a newly created trail along the perimeter of the playground.

The full grant amount was for $250,000 but without the entire award, the district will have to scale back the design for the new playground. The original play structure is 17 years old and has been cited numerous times for rotting posts, drainage issues and possible liability concerns as the equipment has degraded over the years.

“The idea behind this is so that there is connectivity all the way through the property … giving a lot more mobile access for [patrons] to get down to the playground and the exercise equipment as well,” said Executive Director Elaine Ott-Rocheford at a board meeting earlier this year.

In 2018, the district installed two new slides to address compliance and safety concerns identified by staff.

For 2019, King County Parks will fund 36 projects for a total of $2.4 million in grants for a variety of projects ranging from sports and recreation programs to capital project improvements and upgrades.

Some 200 applicants submitted proposals this grant cycle, requesting more than $13 million in support.

The YASG program, implemented by King County Parks, provides King County Council-directed grants, as well as competitive grants, to non-profit organizations, local governments, tribes and school districts.

Ott-Rocheford said that renovating the playground means more than just replacing deteriorating equipment.

“The intent behind the playground is to address what we determined were underserved community groups [on the island],” she said in a phone conversation, adding that the district will need to regroup and decide what priorities should remain in the scope of the project. But she said this news of the grant is a start.

“I am delighted that we were awarded the grant,” she said.