LaHarpe to celebrate new playground

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May 18, 2017 - 12:00 AM

LAHARPE — A nearly yearlong effort to complete a playground in LaHarpe City Park should occur by the end of today.
The final stage — adding rubber mulch at the foot of a climbing wall — was set for completion this afternoon.
To celebrate, the LaHarpe PRIDE Committee, in conjunction with Thrive Allen County, is hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday at the park.
All youngsters are invited.
Free hot dogs and drinks will be provided to the first 300 who arrive.
In case of rain, the festivities will be held beneath the park’s shelter house.

THE PLAYGROUND equipment project was a collaborative effort of many players, and was started in the summer of 2016 by former City Council member Sara’Nicole Prock.
Thrive stepped in with a $10,000 grant, while the City of LaHarpe supplied about $13,000, including $7,000 or so from its playground reserve fund. The final piece of the puzzle came from a $10,000 grant offered by Play & Park Structures, which designed and built the $33,000 apparatus.
From there, a team of volunteers helped on several weekends and evenings in the following months, including a trio of students from the University of Kansas, the LaHarpe Volunteer Fire Department, the Allen County Sheriff’s Department (as well as Allen County Jail inmates), and Ray Maloney of Ray’s Metal Depot.
Several others also contributed, including Nelson Quarries and other helpers from across the county.
The completion was put on hold until LaHarpe PRIDE learned on May 5 that it had secured a $2,175 grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to pay for half of the rubber mulch being installed today. The mulch is made of recycled tires.

ONCE Saturday’s celebration is in the rear view mirror, LaHarpe PRIDE will devote its full energy to another park project, upgrading the old sand volleyball court.
The volleyball court has been there for years, but insufficient drainage invited dirt and clay into the mixture and soon the court sported a nice lawn.
The court area already has been dug out with an excavator supplied by Maloney — he did the same last fall for the surface area for the playground equipment — to allow for a layer of rock and drainage pipes to be installed below the sand.
Additionally, the LaHarpe City Council agreed to donate a pair of light poles to be erected at the volleyball court so it can be used after dark.

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