Kids Kastle, Highland Village’s 25-year-old, community-designed and -built playground in Unity Park, was originally scheduled to be reconstructed by community volunteers from March 23-26 and March 31-April 5. However, due to the coronavirus, the event has since been postponed. The playground was originally slated to be fully completed by June 6.
“The challenges with this—well, when will it be safe to proceed?” said Phil Lozano, the director of the Highland Village Parks and Recreation Department, at the meeting. “I can tell you that even if we were able to build it today, the community would not be able to use it because of the [disaster] declaration and the fact that we have closed down all of our playgrounds.”
Before stay-at-home orders were put into place in March in the wake of the coronavirus, the city was moving full steam ahead to have the new Kids Kastle completed on time, Lozano said.
“We have all been thrown a major, major curveball here,” Highland Village City Manager Michael Leavitt said. “There are still so many variables out there even with what we’re proposing moving forward here tonight. It’s doable, but it’s going to take a lot of luck.”
Leavitt said the city acknowledges things are likely to change if state and local governments extend stay-at-home restrictions beyond April 30.
Despite the unknowns, the city is planning to move the first phase of the project to May 26-29. The first phase would only involve city staff and consultants from Play by Design, the company that helped the city design the new playground with community input.
Lozano noted the consultants are based in New York, which has been the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. This may limit their availability if travel restrictions are in place during the first phase. Their availability could be further affected as the timeline of the company’s other projects are also affected by the coronavirus.
Phase two of the modified schedule would be scheduled for some time in the fall, dependent on the status of the outbreak and Play by Design’s availability. The second phase would include the community build portion of the project in which residents can volunteer to help build the playground.
Prior to the delays, 953 Highland Village residents had volunteered to participate in the community build. The city was aiming to get a total of 2,330 volunteers. Lozano said up until the delays, the rate of volunteer sign ups was quickly picking up pace.
“I don’t know if we’re going to get folks to come build [before fall], to be completely honest,” Lozano said. “So if we approach it this way, it gives folks a chance to feel safe and ready to come out. Because I really feel that we’re going to get a lot of people that are very interested in doing this community build. The reason why this was sold as a community build project is because it was previously a community build and this is what the folks want. And I feel that we should deliver that to them.”
Leavitt said he will deliver another update to City Council in May. At that time, the city should have a clearer idea on what is possible moving forward, he said.
“I really believe that people are going to want to get out and help now even more than before,” Highland Village Mayor Charlotte Wilcox said about the new timeline. “I’ll even grab a hammer and go out just to get out of the house and do something different.”
