New Playground Installation At Dalton Green Joins List Of Capital Improvements
Friday, November 4th, 2022
It might not be the park that comes to mind first for residents, but the Dalton Green is one of the city's busiest parks. Located downtown adjacent to the Whitfield County Courthouse, the park sees traffic from visitors to the court, the Dalton Farmer's Market, various downtown parades and events, and also people just taking a break in the shade while visiting downtown. Now the Dalton Green has a new place for children to play with a new playground being installed this week to replace aging equipment there.
"It’s a similar size playground to what was there but it’s about 25 years newer than what was there," said Caitlin Sharpe, Dalton's Parks and Recreation Department director. "We also are including small music elements with the playground. Those are at ground-level and it makes it more accessible for people of all ages and abilities. It’s a small playground, it’s not a big luxury playground like our other ones but it’s definitely an upgrade from what we had."
Caption: Crews work to build the nucleus of the new playground at the Dalton Green on Friday morning
The playground improvement includes a new core playground with slides and equipment and also a new surface, replacing the existing pea gravel and sand with mulch. The existing swing set will remain in use, though the rocking seals and teeter totters are being removed due to their age and no longer being in compliance with safety code. In coming weeks, there will also be replacements for the benches and trash cans in the park.
"We're really going to highlight the pavilion too so soon it will become a nice little lunch spot downtown," Sharpe said.
The project is one of the items on the 2022 Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) list that was approved by the Mayor and Council over the summer. In June, the city's department heads presented lists of each department's capital improvement needs and the Mayor and Council decided which projects to fund from the 2022 CIP budget. The Dalton Green improvements were among several other Parks and Recreation Department projects approved by the council.
"One of the things particularly in the 2022 CIP list was an emphasis on reinvestment into our parks system," said city administrator Andrew Parker. "Much of the parks system had dated playground equipment and we have a lot of activity at a lot of our parks and the CIP list included playground replacement at Dalton Green, Civitan Park, and renovations to the playground at Heritage Point. We know that in the summers and in the evenings when kids are out of school these are very convenient places for families to come and there’s an effort to make the playgrounds more accessible."
The Civitan Park playground project in particular is focused on accessibility, with a replacement and upgrade of the core playground equipment there and also the creation of a sensory area where kids can take a break in a calm and quiet space when needed to make the park more accessible for all. That project is out for bids and work is expected to begin as soon as possible. Other capital improvements coming for the Parks and Recreation Department include synthetic turf replacements for soccer fields around the city and infield resurfacing and fence repair and replacements for the ball fields at Heritage Point Park.
Caption: Workers unload and unpack equipment for the new Dalton Green playground on Friday morning
The CIP list is not limited to just the parks, of course. The projects approved for funding in June include the purchase of new capital equipment and infrastructure to keep the city's departments running smoothly.
"A lot of times when we think in terms of budgeting we think of the city operating budget, but another key budget that has to be considered is the capital budget and the replacement of some of the existing equipment and items that are utilized to keep everything running smoothly," Parker said. "The project list included a lot of what I’ll call behind the scenes equipment and things we don’t think about but we utilize every day – public works equipment, and fire department equipment, needed equipment for the departments to be able to do their jobs effectively. The Public Works Department for example was approved for a new recycling truck, a street sweeper, and a rear-loader garbage truck. This time of year, something the public will see are crews working on leaf pickup. Every evening in the fall, crews are working to collect leaves and the city prior to this projects list only had one automated leaf vacuum truck that can be operated by the driver. This capital projects list included adding another one so we’ll have two to deploy now in addition to the other ways we collect leaves."
While the projects approved from the CIP received the green light in June, many are only now being completed or delivered thanks to supply chain issues. Some of the CIP highlights include new breathing apparatus replacements for the fire department as well as repairs at some of the fire stations, streetscape improvements for the Cuyler Street and Pentz Street area, a new fire alarm system for City Hall, and various security improvements for the city's computer network.
While some capital improvements for Dalton might be large scale projects, others can be relatively small like remaking the Dalton Green playground. But they are all big assets for the community.
"Projects like that which although they may be small in footprint or budget, that doesn't directly correlate to the size of the return on investment. We see the return on investment every day when you see families and kids being able to enjoy the facility," Parker said. "It also helps us because it lowers the ongoing maintenance costs of trying to maintain a 20 year old playground that’s safe and accessible to the public."
"If you think about it, playgrounds are our most utilized facilities or equipment in the Parks and Recreation Department," Sharpe added. "That's where kids learn to play, learn to socialize, learn so many of your basic fundamental skills. So playground companies really emphasize the importance of play and they are always looking at the newest and most improved ways to make sure it’s accessible and inclusive so that everybody can play."
