New playground sought for Down East School

BANGOR – Most years, nobody shows up for the annual public hearing on the city’s federally funded Community Development Block Grant activities.

This year’s hearing, however, drew a contingent of about a half-dozen people representing Down East School to the council chambers at City Hall.

During their meeting Wednesday night with city councilors, officials and supporters of the city elementary school, which serves students in kindergarten through grade three, made a case for including a new playground, at an estimated cost of $70,000, on the city’s list of CDBG activities for the year ahead.

The playground also is used heavily by the larger community, including residents of Capehart, a sprawling housing complex for the city’s low- to moderate-income residents, the very population the program aims to serve, according to several members of the group.

“If you know our neighborhood at all, you know that there aren’t a lot of recreational activities in our neighborhood,” Down East School Principal Mary Helen Williams said.

The current equipment, installed about 15 years ago, is showing its age, she said. The concrete that anchors the swing set and other equipment has been heaving up out of the ground, posing a safety hazard for the children who play there.

Many of the city’s most popular recreational assets, including the Beth Pancoe Municipal Aquatic Center at Hayford Park, Mansfield Stadium and Sawyer Arena, are on the other side of the city, making it tough for some kids to access.

“I feel that the kids in the neighborhood need and deserve a new state-of-the-art playground,” Williams said.

Also pressing for the Down East project was Lois Brann, a kindergarten teacher. She noted that research shows that physical activity has a direct benefit in the classroom. Playgrounds are where many youngsters develop their social, fine and gross motor, and decision-making skills, she said.

“If you can do this for us, it would be a wonderful, wonderful thing,” Brann said.

According to a memorandum prepared by Kaleena Nakowicz, who recently joined the city staff as assistant community development director, the city expects to receive a CDBG grant of $1,026,151 in the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1. The amount represents a decrease of $39,996 from this year’s allocation.

Available funds also will include about $300,000 in income from the repayment of loans made through the city’s residential property rehabilitation and business development programs, bringing the total available for CDBG activities to $1,326,151, Nakowicz said. Seventy percent of CDBG funds must benefit low- to moderate-income individuals.

According to Tracy Willette, the city’s parks and recreation director, the playgrounds at Down East School and at Second Street Park both are contenders for the “most in need of replacement” title.

“I could very easily use the same argument for both locations,” Willette said. The Second Street Park playground project also would cost about $70,000.

Though decisions have yet to be completed, few city officials needed to be convinced of the need for new equipment at the school. Play structure replacement at both parks, as well as street and sidewalk replacement in eligible neighborhoods, are all on the city’s list of “possible new activities” that might be conducted under the auspices of the CDBG program.

Besides the park and street improvements, the city plans to use its annual allotment to continue financing residential property rehabilitation, for planning and design of a linear park at Bangor Waterfront, for business development activities, for case management at the Park Woods transitional housing complex, and for city planning and administration.

Wednesday’s hearing was the first of two the city is required to hold before filing its final plans for the use of its CDBG money. The second will take place in early May, according to city staff.

dgagnon@bangordailynews.net

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