Playground areas to get a facelift
A playground area in Butler Memorial Park, 100 Memorial Drive, has a new look thanks to the efforts of the Butler AM Rotary Club.
And the service club isn't stopping with its work this month. It plans to fundraise through the winter to complete a second playground area renovation.
Lisa Campbell, the Rotarian in charge of the project, said the 40-member service club replaced the preschool playground area Oct. 20.
Butler AM Rotary Club President Joyce Cully said, “Our project was to refurbish both these playground areas in Butler Memorial Park. Our project is in two phases. We completed the first phase in October.”
Campbell said, “This was previously a dilapidated swing set. The City of Butler has been wonderful to work with. The parks crew here has been amazing.”
Campbell said nearly 50 people — Rotary members, park maintenance workers, the playground equipment vendor's employees and volunteers — worked from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. setting up the multi-slide playset. The project called for 25 holes to be dug and the use of 70 pounds of cement, the Rotary members said.
Campbell said the preschool area cost about $43,000 to buy and set up. Another $117,000 is needed to fulfill the park project's second phase, Cully said.
Campbell said, “We're going to refurbish this (second) area, install a couple of playground modules, make it handicapped accessible, put in a sidewalk to the parking lot and add a sidewalk to connect the two areas.”
Campbell said the club decided on the playground project because members considered Butler Memorial Park a little-known asset to the community, and the swing and slide sets looked outdated.
Campbell said the Butler AM Rotary Club has been raising money from corporate and individual donors. Cully said business donors such as the AK Steel Foundation, the Oddfellows, UPG and AES Specialty Services contributed nearly $26,000 to the playground project.
Campbell said in addition, “Individuals have been contributing $3, $8, whatever they can.”
“We started raising money this summer and we will continue to do so,” said Campbell.
Campbell said the Rotary Club's recent “Ghosts and Giggles” comedy dinner show raised money for the second phase of the club's park project.
She and Cully emphasized that money raised in the upcoming “Carved in Ice” event Feb. 23 in downtown Butler's Diamond Park will also go to the park project.
“There will be a chili cook-off, and we will sell blocks of ice. There will be an auction and vendors,” said Cully,
Campbell said, “We plan to complete this project next year.” To that end, she said, the Rotarians are applying for grants to add to the total being raised for the park renovation.
“Our hope is to have enough money to set up an endowment for the maintenance and upkeep of this park for the city,” said Cully.
Cully said people can donate by going to the Butler AM Rotary Club's website: ButlerAMrotary.com.
She said, “We have a donate button so they can just press that and use a credit card. No donation is too small.”
