The City of Tenino received a $515,000 state supplemental capital budget appropriation to replace its playground at Tenino City Park, a project that has been in the works for about eight years, but was made more of a priority around 2021.
During the winter of 2020-21, playground equipment at Tenino City Park was destroyed in a windstorm, which caused trees to fall on some of the structures. Last year, Tenino asked the Legislature to help the city rebuild the playground, but came up short.
Now thanks to a local lawmaker, the same request was greenlighted in the 2022 state supplemental capital budget.
“This year, we worked with Rep. Peter Abbarno’s office and he really went to bat for us, and we were able to get our request funded,” Tenino Mayor Wayne Fournier told The Chronicle.
The city is in the process of completing preparations for phase one of the project, with new equipment to be installed as early as May.
Tenino will install a big toy made by a company in Sweden, called KOMPAN.
“They build unique playground features using a lot of ropes. It’s really cool,” Fournier said. “It’s really built on building skills for kids and confidence. Their style of toys are very … low barrier, so people of all ability and age can use them.”
The big toy is what’s being called the “explorer dome,” a 20-foot tall dome with all kinds of varying-sized ropes and toys built inside it.
The KOMPAN equipment starts with lower-hanging ropes and styles of play, which increases in difficulty the higher a kid climbs.
Phase two of the project could be completed as early as September.
The city will install a climbing wall made of ropes to the side of the explorer dome, and interspersed through the rest of the playground will be a free-standing slide, a bank of swings for all abilities and various spinning toys.
Amid all the equipment for kids, there will also be stations designed for adult fitness that will provide a space for parents to do things like sit-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups and climbing.
But perhaps most importantly, Fournier said, will be the construction of what he calls the most “robust” and “unique” pump track in the nation.
A pump track is a kind of riding track. The family-friendly installation will be used by bicyclists, kids on scooters and skateboarders, Fournier said. Pump tracks are designed with intervals of hills and turns that are interspersed throughout the track so that people can ride on them without the need to pedal. The riders will pump with their handlebars or legs while they’re on the track, enabling them to move continuously up and down the inclines and turns using their momentum alone.
The city will install over 500 feet of track, with its steel subframe and fiberglass build providing three areas of varying levels of difficulty.
“We really want to focus on being able to be available for everyone,” Fournier said. “The pump track, at the beginner level, you can even call it a wheel-chair roller coaster. It’s designed so even people in a wheelchair can ride on it (or) roll on it.”
The park’s design includes about nine to 10 benches, and sunshades could also be in the works, Fournier said.
He said the playground’s position is near the trailheads for the region’s bicycle infrastructure, which includes the Chehalis Western Trail and the Yelm-Rainier-Tenino Trail.
“We have 50 acres of park for our city, and we’re not a real big city, so we’re the biggest — I think nicest — park in North Lewis, South Thurston county,” Fournier said. “Our park serves a lot of different people. It draws people in (who) will then go to our businesses, go to our restaurants and shop in our town. And since we’ve been making more investments in our parks, that’s shown in our sales tax revenue, so it’s an economic engine for our community.”
The city has also earmarked about $250,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the endeavor since the playground’s draw will be essential for economic recovery, Fournier said.
“It’s also good for building community,” he said. “It’s good for creating a healthy, vibrant community, where people are outside. They’re interacting with each other, making memories in (their) community. It just makes a more livable, more enjoyable town.”
The project has deep roots for Fournier on a personal level as well, he said.
“My daughter (Sage) and I have been working on this playground concept for, like, eight years. And so my favorite part is just getting to do something with her as a part of being a mayor. And so, probably my favorite part will be seeing her cut the ribbon on it,” Fournier said.
