St. John park fund hits $55,000 after club donation

The merry-go-round at the St. John Park will be removed soon, as will much of the rest of the equipment. St. John sisters Jessiann Loomis and Valerie Brewer have been collecting funds to purchase new park equipment.

When Jessiann Loomis’ first child is old enough to play at the park in St. John, the park will look a little different than it does now.

Loomis and her sister, Valerie Brewer, have been hard at work since October to raise funds to cover the cost of replacing much of the park equipment there now. The park was in danger of closing if the equipment could not be replaced, and the town of St. John did not have enough funds to cover the cost of needed repairs and replacements.

Loomis is expecting her first child with Stuart Elliott, who she calls her other half and soul mate, at the end of January. Loomis and Brewer are fifth generation St. John residents who grew up playing at the park, and their children are sixth generation residents. Brewer has three children – a 7-year-old son and 5-year-old twin girls.

“The park is the one thing for kids,” Brewer told the Gazette in October, “and for the sanity of the parents!”

By mid-October, the sisters had raised $15,000 through donations and fund raisers, plus an additional $5,000 the St. John Town Council agreed to commit to the fund.

Before last weekend, the fund had grown to around $35,000, and it gained ground Sunday when the St. John Community Club donated all the proceeds from their Winterfest dinner and silent auction to the cause. That brought the total figure to around $55,000 raised in just more than two months.

“That got us right up there where we were hoping to be,” said Loomis. “Things are really looking good for the park fund.”

Loomis said some of the park equipment which will not continue to be used at the park, but is still feasible for other uses, was auctioned off at the dinner Sunday.

“Individuals bought them, so we will put them out and deliver,” she said. “People will use them as they see it. It is all fine, but not for the city park.”

Loomis said the small slide and monkey bars will stay at the park, and the big slide, teeter totter and merry-go-round are items that will go.

“The verdict is still out on the others,” she said.

Some unanticipated costs have come up in the process of establishing the fund and soliciting donations, including the need for safety surfacing.

“Safety surfacing is one of those things that could easily eat up that budget,” said Loomis.

Insurance adjuster Mark Sherwood, of Clear Risk Solutions in Ephrata, said safety surfacing is needed to replace the grass and the dirt currently at the park.

“Just about anything works better than concrete, asphalt, grass or dirt,” he said. “Grass and dirt just don't make good surfacing for playground equipment.”

Sherwood said some of the options for replacing the grass and dirt include engineered wood fiber, wood chips, bark, mulch, sand, rubber surfacing or pea gravel.

“Any of those materials will be good, whatever would work best,” he said. “A lot of it is going to have to do with cost.”

Loomis said there is no timeline right now for when the new equipment will be purchased and installed, but she did say that there are discounts on park equipment in the fall that they may decide to take advantage of, depending on the costs and what the community wants.

“That would make our money stretch further,” said Loomis. “Play structures are really, really expensive.”

She added that they are now focusing on turning their attention toward grants to help with their fund.

“Our community has given so much in such a short amount of time,” she said. “I am proud of our community for coming up with this amount of money so quickly.”

Loomis said that depending on the grants applied for, the timeline could be different.

“If we end up going through a Washington state park grant, there is a really long process that goes with that,” she said, adding that the application will be due in May 2016, and they would not find out the results of that application until spring 2017.

“The reason it might be worth it, though, is because it is a matching one, so it would double our money,” said Loomis. “We are going to keep working toward that.”

Brewer and Loomis have distributed a survey to the St. John community to gather input, ideas, expectations and wants from the community. Though they have initiated the fund, they want to make sure this is community-driven and that they are not the ones making the call for the entire community.

“We are not going to be the decision makers,” said Loomis. “Everything will go up for a vote.”

The survey includes questions about how those in the community use the park (or do not use it), how often they use it, a rating for the current facility and additional things the community would like to see at the park, including the possibility of a half-court basketball court and an adult outdoor fitness area.

“If we could provide that too, that would be great,” said Loomis. “It would be a matter of finding out that budget.”

Whatever happens, Loomis said she knows they will be able to provide an improved facility, and the credit for that goes to the community that has rallied together.

“It is absolutely amazing,” she said. “I could not be more proud of our town.”