STONE HARBOR – The Borough Council has held a public hearing aimed at soliciting community involvement in early-stage plans for an all-inclusive playground at 82nd Street.
The project is being undertaken in coordination with the Jake’s Place Foundation. The town is seeking major funding for the playground through the state’s Green Acres program; Gov. Phil Murphy has increased state support for that program’s involvement in inclusive play areas.
At the Jan. 21 public hearing the council received input from an unexpected quarter, the school district’s kindergarten.
Through a project at the school, the young users of the borough’s playgrounds were given catalogs from approved playground creators and asked to cut out and paste on poster board pictures of the equipment they wanted in their playground.
The result was a series of playground “designs,” some of which would represent challenging projects.
The hearing also had a presentation by Jake’s Place Executive Director Arthur Aston, who took the council back to the first Jake’s Place effort, a playground in Cherry Hill opened in 2011. Since then three additional playgrounds have opened, in Delran, Robbinsville and Winslow Township.
Jacob Myles Cummings-Nasto was the inspiration for it all. Jacob died young of a heart condition, but his family, seeing his joy at playgrounds, acted in his memory when they built an inclusive playground based on their belief that no child should be denied play regardless of physical limitations.
What has become known as Jake’s Law was passed in 2018 seeking to incentivize counties to build all-inclusive playgrounds. Later the state opened the grant process to municipalities as well as counties, the pathway Stone Harbor has embarked on.
The concept of playground inclusiveness, Aston said, involves a play area ready for all children, including those with physical, mental or even non-apparent disabilities. The playgrounds are designed for easy access by disabled adults as well.
According to Aston, 13% of Cape May County residents have some form of disability. Those varieties pose challenges in the design of the playgrounds.
If Stone Harbor can win a Green Acres grant, the funding would be between $500,000 and $750,000, with a 25% match by the municipality.
The borough has also been seeking input through a survey on the town website, an effort that has already produced 454 responses. Goals include getting to 600 responses by early February and 1,200 by August. The borough is seeking input from its many visitors as well as its residents.
At the end of the public hearing the council adopted a resolution authorizing the borough to move ahead with its Green Acres submission.
Last year the badly eroded equipment at both the 97th and 82nd Street playgrounds was removed, as both facilities had been deemed unsafe. Residents and visitors were left to look to Chelsea Park as their only option for a playground.
The borough moved first on the 97th Street playground, seeking a county open space grant for what was estimated to be a $1.7 million project that would be a complete redo of the facility, including new restrooms, storage, fencing, playground and a widening of the basketball court.
Borough Engineer Marc DeBlasio told the council on Jan. 21 that he expected the playground portion of the 97th Street complex to be open by April.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
