OttawaHerald.com -- Community News. Community Connections.

	Franklin County, Kansas, USA

2009-11-07

2009-11-04

2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Thursday, July 09, 2009 12:29 PM

Grant to help address playground safety

By JENALEA MYERS, Herald Staff Writer

WILLIAMSBURG — Replacing the playground surface at Williamsburg Elementary School is for the children’s safety, its principal says.

“Pea gravel tends to migrate,” Susan Wildeman said. “And the rubber surface is a bit softer than pea gravel.”

Thanks to a $4,256 grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Bureau of Waste Management, Williamsburg’s playground soon will receive a new rubber surface — similar to the surface recently installed at Appanoose Elementary School.

KDHE awarded nearly $500,000 in waste tire recycling grants to municipalities and school districts across the state. Most of the grants will help partially fund the purchase of products that provide safe surfacing at playgrounds and for picnic tables and benches made from waste tires.

This year’s 48 waste tire recycling grants, ranging from $269 to $79,315, will be distributed to recipients across the state. This is the third year of the grant program following several years of grants to Kansas tire processors to purchase equipment to process the tires into a usable raw material. The grants are funded from a 25-cent tax paid on the purchase of new tires.

Wildeman said a new playground surface is something the school has wanted for a while. The school also has been eyeing new playground equipment.

“We’ve been actively fundraising since the fall,” she said.

Wildeman said the school is about $5,000 short of its fundraising goal of $18,500. She said it hopes to reach its goal soon and install the new rubber surface provided by the grant and new playground equipment at the same time.

“We hope to have it done sometime in the fall,” she said. “Right now, we are planning on donating the old playground equipment to the city of Williamsburg.”

Jenalea Myers can be e-mailed at jmyers@ottawaherald.com.

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article |
Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.

Grant to help address playground safety

By JENALEA MYERS, Herald Staff Writer

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article | Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article |
Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.