EVANSVILLE, Wyo. — Evansville may soon have a new playground, as the town recently received a community development block grant worth $1,068,566 that will go toward a community park.
“This is very exciting,” Mayor Chad Edwards said. “[Town engineer Shane Porter] and I have been meeting weekly to talk about this project and our plans for it.”
The planned playground would be located on the southern end of the existing Reshaw Park.
Edwards said he expects the park to include all the standard pieces of playground equipment typically found in a park, but added that a key part of the plan is the inclusion of accessibility features.
“That’s one of our key stipulations,” he said. “We want this to be a park where every kid can go and have a great time. … This would be a great thing for our community.”
Though city officials are excited to receive the CDBG funding, the park is not a done deal just yet. The grant is conditional with strict deadlines, Edwards said. There are deadlines for various steps of the project, and Edwards said the work needs to be done in the fall or the grant money will be pulled.
“We obviously need to be timely about this, because if it gets late into the process and it’s looking like it won’t get done, we’d have to pull out,” he said. “We don’t want to be stuck with a bill we can’t pay.”
Still, he said he’s confident the town will finish the project in time, and has already begun the process of environmental studies and bidding.
