By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
Five years after building its first splash pad at one Yukon park, city officials will seek a grant to help fund a new water play feature and playground upgrades at a second park.
Citizens are asked to provide feedback about the City’s grant request for a spray ground/park and two new inclusive playgrounds at Freedom Trail Park, 2101 S Holly.
A public hearing to receive input will be 7 p.m. next Tuesday, July 16 during the Yukon City Council meeting inside the Centennial Building, 12 S 5th.
City officials plan to submit a request to the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department for a 50/50 reimbursable Land & Water Conservation Fund grant. The proposed project amount is $800,000 and the local share would be $400,000.
The Sunrise Splash Pad at Sunrise Park, 550 S Yukon Parkway, has been open since 2014. This spray ground is busy all summer keeping local youth cool and wet, according to Yukon Parks & Recreation Director Jan Scott.
“It’s crazy used,” Scott said of the Sunrise Splash Pad, open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Labor Day.
Splash pads – also known as spray parks or spray grounds – is a recreation area for water play with little or no standing water. There is no need for lifeguards or other supervision and little risk of drowning.
Yukon obtained a Land & Water Conservation Fund grant through the National Park Service more than five years ago to help fund construction of the Sunrise Splash Pad.
“If there could be a new spray ground there at Freedom Trail that would be great,” Scott said. “The Park Board has been asking for another splash pad since the one opened at Sunrise.”
If Yukon is awarded the new grant, funds also will help enhance the accessible playground at Freedom Trail Park.
“The playground is 25 years old and needs to be updated,” Scott said. “The community built that playground and it is well used.”
For more information on the grant request for Freedom Trail Park, contact City of Yukon grant writer Claudia Krshka at 354-6676 or ckrshka@yukonok.gov
