Missouri City plans to replace in the spring the Quail Valley North Park playground equipment destroyed by arson in 2011, using funds from a recently awarded $50,000 corporate grant. A copy of the application for the grant from home improvement store Lowe’s lists March 1, 2017 as the project’s start date, with a completion date of March 12, 2017. City Manager Anthony Snipes said the new play equipment will be purchased from Play and Park Structures, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The roughly $50,000 price tag includes delivery of the playscape, the soft surfacing material that will be installed on the ground beneath it, in addition to the playground equipment itself, he said. The new play equipment will be installed by volunteers from Missouri City. Professionals will be on hand to supervise the work, much the way volunteers help to build houses for Habitat for Humanity families under the supervision of construction professions. The new playground will be built closer to the park’s parking lot, Snipes said. In addition to the new equipment, the city plans to spend an additional $70,000 completing other upgrades to the park, including adding a new sidewalk and ensuring the area meets standards set in the Americans with Disabilities Act. That money will be paid from the city’s park zone fund, said Cory Stottlemyer, media relations specialist for Missouri City. The new playground equipment should be a significant upgrade from what was destroyed by arsonists in 2011. That playground equipment had been purchased for $8,800 in 1996, Stottlemyer said. The destroyed equipment was not covered by insurance at the time of the arson. Snipes said that equipment had depreciated after 15 years of use to the point that it did not make financial sense for the city to pay the cost of the necessary insurance premium. Snipes said the decision of whether to insure the new playground equipment will be determined at the time of the city’s annual budget process. The grant awarded by Lowe’s was considerably more than its average grant amount. According to www.lowes.com, its grants typically range from $5,000 to $25,000.