Residents select playground of their choice with vote

by Jim Boyle

Editor

Residents in Trott Brook Farms have spoken, and the Elk River Park and Recreation Commission has seconded their support of Option 3 to replace the housing development’s existing park.

The Elk River City Council authorized the purchase and installation of a $118,033 Flagship playground to include the structures, wood chips, geotextile fabric, and a dumpster. Staff will conduct the site prep and coordinate the demolition.

The city has $125,000 budgeted in its Park Improvement Fund for the project, which will be completed in 2024.

Staff worked closely with Flagship Recreation on playground concepts. The first set didn’t fit within the budgetary parameters. The next set did and was presented to the residents of Trott Brook Farms Park by way of mail.

The city’s parks department mailed out 510 postcards with a QR code stating, “We want to hear from the members in your household which playground you prefer.”

The mailer included a QR code and elicited 244 QR code scans and 362 views of the website containing images of the playground and 1,648 total clicks to access the images and the survey link.

They got 155 submissions back with nearly half the votes (75 votes or 48.4%) supporting Option 3. Option 2 garnered 69 votes (nearly 44.5%). Option 1 only got 11 votes (7.1%).

The park commission lent their support to Option 3. Council Member Mike Beyer, the council liaison to the park commission, said there was a lot of review at the March 13 park commission meeting. To see the discussion, visit: https://shorturl.at/ajmoy

“It was nice to see we went out and got city engagement,” Beyer said at the March 18 council meeting. “(Staff) worked hard to do that. I thought it was done well.”