Moody Park will be home to a contemporary/retro playground and spray park next summer, but it’s going to the dogs this year.
A staff report presented to council earlier this year indicated playground and spray park construction work is expected to take 20 weeks to complete. The city hopes to have the project completed over the winter, so it’s good to go next spring and summer.
“Ideally, you want to be doing landscape construction work in the middle of summer when it is dry, but it’s also the worst time if you’re building in a park that has an existing playground in it,” said Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks, culture and recreation. “Our original goal, when we were first envisioning this project, it would have been a project that started in the middle of winter and finished up in early May. For a variety of reasons, we missed that window of opportunity, so we have deferred to starting in the fall period, and then we will work over the winter. You may recall back in 2010 when we built all those parks and trails in Queensborough, we did all of that in the dead of winter so it can be done. It just requires a good contractor who understands how to work in those conditions.”
The city consulted with community members to get input about what they’d like to see in the new-and-improved playground and spray park in Moody Park.
“They are going to be treated to something that is much more contemporary and has much more creative play opportunities,” Gibson said of the plan. “We have built in a number of natural features, such as sand play areas and things to climb on that are not simply playground equipment. The spray and water play area is going to have a lot more opportunities for things like small water channels and things like that, as opposed to simply overhead spray.”
The spray park’s surface is currently cement, but will be replaced with a more “user-friendly” material. Some areas will have the rubber surfacing that is located under some playground equipment in some of the other parks.
When complete, the playground will be a little bit contemporary and a little bit retro. Some existing features will be refurbished and retained.
“It will be a refreshed area,” Gibson said. “For example, there is the big old stack of industrial truck tires. Those are still part of the new park design. We are going retro on those. They will be coming back again. Everything around them will be cleaned up and reorganized a bit, but they will stay in place right where they are.”
Going bye-bye is the wooden climbing structure that’s been a feature in the park for years, but climbers need not worry about being bored.
“We have got some new elements, some things we have never seen before here in the city, some climbing and play and balance toys. There are some specific pieces we have sourced out from some manufacturers in Europe that have been doing some cutting edge stuff. We will be introducing that into the park as well.”
While work on the playground will get started in the fall, contractors and city crews are already working on creating a new off-leash dog area near the Eighth Street entrance to the park.
“Construction of the fencing portion has started,” Gibson told the Record on June 18. “That is underway this week and through to the end of next. That work is being done through a contractor.”
City crews will be putting in pathways to the off-leash area and equipping it with garbage cans and benches.
“That’s all underway right now,” Gibson said. “By the time we get into July, keeping our fingers crossed, that should be operational and available for pets and people.”
In preparation for the new playground and spray park in Moody Park, the city replaced the sanitary sewer line that runs near the spraypark and the parks and recreation head office. The work was in keeping with the city’s policy of switching from combined sewer lines to separated stormwater and sewer lines.
“Our spray pool project triggered that particular work. That work is done. The park is back to normal and the spray pool is operating,” Gibson said. “The actual construction of the playground and spray pool will start in the fall. We will be going out to tender for that work over the summer months. I anticipate we will be starting in late September or early October.”
