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Center Township Trustee Andrew Durham has dreamed about upgrading Somers Park ever since the City of Kokomo ceded it to the township. Today, that dream is coming true, modestly.
Construction of new playground equipment and a parking lot is currently taking place, and in just a matter of weeks, children in the eastside neighborhood will enjoy slides, swings, jungle gyms … and a ninja course?
“It's been a journey for the park,” said Durham. “It's been a little up and down as far as what we wanted to do with it. We scoped out different playground companies and looked at other examples in Kokomo and neighboring counties.”
The late Rev. Robert Lee began the transformative process during his final term as Center Township Trustee. Durham, then the township comptroller, did the research. The two came up with ambitious designs with some pretty hefty price tags. Elaborate, tiered playgrounds. New sporting facilities. Public restrooms. Parking lots. Lighting. Security cameras. It added up quickly, and the Center Township board of supervisors balked at the price tag, which crept over $2 million.
“We had a big-scale park with all the amenities that people wanted,” said Durham. “Obviously, that's what we wanted to do, but it was not what my board wanted me to do. All I could do was lay all the options out and say, ‘This is our cost. This is what we could do to finance it.’
“I had a pretty good plan. But that's the nature of the beast of government. (The board) didn't want me to do it. But we were able to come to an agreement that the playground needed updated.”
Durham stressed that the playgrounds in Somers Park were no longer in compliance with safety regulations. Exposed bolts on the equipment and sharply angled slides were cited as dangerous. Just laying down mulch and maintaining what was in place wasn’t enough.
“We had to have a safe place for people to go,” said Durham.
Fortunately, the township was somewhat flush with cash. It had been reserving funds for more than a decade. When the township board nixed the big plans that would have emptied that reserve and then sought additional funding, Durham pivoted to the more modest design that is being constructed.
There will be no additional taxes collected to fund Somers Park.
“A park is an easy way for government to put something out there for people who live here,” said Durham. “We're putting something in at a small scale that we can afford. The project we had last year for $2.5 million? I wasn't 100 percent sold on the price. I didn't want to do it in a way that would cost $10 a year extra per taxpayer. I had to weigh option two.”
Apparently, option two involves ninjas. One of the two playgrounds being installed looks like a training course for the popular television show that has contestants scaling walls, climbing nets, and swinging from bars.
The decision was deliberate. Durham explained that Rev. Lee had envisioned a fitness-based playground that incorporated plenty of fun. In talking to Play Pros, a local playground designer that has installed many equipment sets in Kokomo and the surrounding area, the township found the design that fulfilled Lee’s vision.
“It's something different,” said Durham. “We know even if we're going to add this new stuff, it's not Highland Park. It's not going to be a destination park, but the people on Delphos Street and Jefferson Street and Madison Street and Taylor Street and Mulberry Street … they are going to walk there.
“We hope to get those kids there, and those young adults where the ninja course is more geared towards 8- to 13-year-olds up to adults. I know Play Pros is real excited to put it in because they don't have any in this area.”
One large challenge for Somers Park has been the lack of parking. There was no place for cars at all, so patrons were forced to walk to the park. That is changing. A parking lot has been dug out at the top of the hill in the southeast corner of the park.
The second big challenge – a lack of restroom facilities – will remain a challenge. The cost of running water, electricity, and sanitary sewers to Somers Park was just too prohibitive.
“People have asked about restrooms, but they are probably one of the hardest things to build,” said Durham. “Even when we were looking at the bigger-scale project, restrooms were something we had to contemplate not having.”
The playground project is well on its way to completion, and Durham hopes to hold a ribbon cutting to officially open the new playgrounds no later than May.
Somers Park, located at the southwest corner of Jefferson Street and Delphos Street on Kokomo’s east side, is wholly owned and operated by Center Township of Howard County. For additional information about the township, visit www.centertownship1.com or the Center Township Facebook page.