PORT TOWNSEND — Saying Pope Marine Park in downtown Port Townsend is worn and underused, a small group of parents proposes an elaborate, community-built “Dream Playground” in its place.
“This is primarily using all volunteers and donated resources,” Dave Christensen told about 40 Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce members at their Monday luncheon at Fort Worden State Park Commons.
Christensen keynoted the chamber meeting after the scheduled speaker, Alan Trunnell, single-family housing director of Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority, was unable to attend.
The playground project could be similar in magnitude to Port Angeles’ 12,000-square-foot Dream Playground at Erickson Field, which was built by thousands of volunteers during a weekend in September 2002.
Total cost of the landmark Port Angeles playground, mostly unwritten by private donations from individuals, service clubs and other organizations, was $130,000.
The Port Angeles community project followed a similar one in Kitsap County around 2000.
Depending on the design — which is largely determined by the children who would use it — the Port Townsend version could cost between $50,000 and $150,000, Christensen said.
“We have tentative approval from the city to do it because we are replacing an existing structure with a new one,” he said.
The playground’s equipment could have a marine or Victorian theme, he said.
And it would be designed “however we want it to look,” he added.
