Nesbitt Park almost lost out on its share of the federal funding that's been improving parks and adding playgrounds across the city over the past few months.
But Cheryl Drynan made sure they got what she figured they deserved.
As president of the
Governor's Bridge Ratepayers Association, when she was told that her neighbourhood's park would only receive $25,000 to help clean up the after effects of some municipal sewer digging that had gone on in the area, she went to her councilor, Case Ootes, to see how they could get more.
"We developed a good working relationship with Councillor Ootes," Drynan says. "We just kept at them and at them and at them about money, and we got a call in January saying that he had sought out some of the federal funding and that we would be granted $100,000."
The neighbourhood next door, North Rosedale, was not so lucky, and had to raise money themselves to replace their equally elderly playground, according to Drynan.
The $100,000 bought a new playground, made of colourful child-safe plastic, to replace the old wood equipment which, Drynan says, was liable to splintering.
The ratepayers group debuted the equipment this past Sunday at their annual barbeque. They had planned to keep the equipment fenced off for the big unveiling, "but the kids were jumping the fence," she says, eager to get at the new equipment, so they had a soft opening last week.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Cheryl Drynan
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