Gabriel Park Play Area Status

Many folks have commented lately about the state of the childrens' play area at Gabriel Park. I've spent may hours over there in the past five years, and was dismayed when the small slides were damaged, then removed. I've posted in the past about the removal of the fitness course down by the volleyball courts. This area was loved by Jr. V and referred to as "the rocks area" around our house and on this 'blog. When Jr. V and I were up at the park the other day, I noticed a series of white spray-painted dots all around the contours of the playground. It had the look of a survey about it, and I was curious. So I went to Portland Online and looked up the Parks Department to see if there were any plans to improve this area. Not finsing any info, I sent an email to the Parks Dept asking about any future plans.

I didn't expect more than a form-letter response, but I just got (at 11:00 PM) a lengthy response from Pat Billings (which CC:d half the city government) about the plans for our park. I'm a little stunned, and very pleased with the completeness of this response! The entire message is quoted below, for your info:

There are not any immediate plans to replace the PAR exercise course that was removed at Gabriel last fall.  We do not have funds available but it is on a long list of Capitol Improvement Projects (CIPs).  We would welcome a donation for a new course as just the cost of the equipment is 10 to 20 thousand dollars (depending on how much equipment) without including the cost of installation.  
 
I am not sure when the course was installed.  I don't remember it being there when I started working for Parks in the early seventies.  I do know that the funds were donated by the now defunct Holiday Park Hospital and a group of other Portland businesses.  I have the brass plaque in memory of Edward R. Hopkins with the names of the companies that donated.  There is not a date on it. 
 
The old course was removed because it had exceeded it's useful life over 10 years ago.  We made repair after repair on it, and without replacing it, it could not be brought to a condition where it could be considered a reasonable asset.  The final decision to remove it came after 2 children were slightly injured when one of the components failed and they fell to the ground. 
 
The long range planning is to locate a skatepark in the area where the par course was and the sand volleyball courts are now.  There is not current funding for this project.  If this happens, the sand volleyball courts will be located in an area east of the lower tennis courts.  It is possible that a new par course can be tied into that project.  I have had at least one request to construct an additional sand volleyball court.
 
We are currently in the process of planning repairs to the children's playground on the north side of the park.  The embankment double slide had to be removed after it had been vandalized and a large hole was made in it.  There are other discrepancies in the playground that need to be addressed. 
 
Children have undermined the upper structure and the rubber surface around it.  This and the steep bank to the east side have caused the soft surface material to become contaminated with soil though erosion.  This makes the soft surface of woodchips compacted and unacceptable to meet playground specifications.  The upper structure will need to be removed so that we can make a series of retaining walls under it and to the east before we can replace it and the slide. 
 
The handicap accessible side walk to the upper structure and the slide need to have the ramp into the soft surface material completed.  This was not completed in the initial construction because there was not enough room for a safe fall zone for the tire swing.  In order to accomplish this, the swing and tire swing structure need to be moved about two feet to the south.  These are going to be expensive repairs and might have to be done separately.  Again, we would welcome contributions from the community.  We did a topographic survey of the playground the first week of August and Lisa Cameli our Parks Engineer is having drawings made of our planned repairs.  We hope to complete the repairs before next spring. 

Anybody got 20 Grand?