Max Starcke Park wins $75,000 Perk Your Park contest
(Seguin) — The waiting is officially over. The city of Seguin has learned that it has won one of the three $75,000 prizes being awarded in the Niagara Bottling Perk Your Park contest. As most of you remember, folks were encouraged to vote daily in the online contest being sponsored by both Niagara and The National Recreation and Park Association.
Seguin’s Max Starcke Park was one of nine finalist selected to be a part of the contest held Aug.7 through Sept. 18. The other two communities receiving a $75,000 prize include Fowler Field park in Douglasville, Ga. and Las Flores Park in La Verne, Calif.
Excited about the news is Seguin Parks and Recreation Director Jack Jones. Jones says he first has to thank the voters of Seguin and anyone else for helping to make this happen. He adds that throughout the six weeks contest, Seguin held the lead for most nominations.
“Certainly, the thanks really goes to the city of Seguin, the residents, everyone who participated in nominating Starcke Park for this $75,000 Perk Your Park Grant from Niagara. There was 30,000 nominations, 30,000 folks supported this project in Seguin. To put that in perspective, there were nine worthy projects that were being considered.
So of the nine projects out there, there was a total of 80,000 nominations so of the 80,000, 30,000 of those nominations were in support of the Starcke Park playground. So, that just speaks volumes of the support that we got from the Seguin community to make this grant possible,” said Jones.
Jones says the drive to go after this money came after the city was forced to demolition the old Kids Kingdom playground at Max Starcke Park. He say the aging playscape was just too dangerous for local kids.
Although they knew that winning the contest was not going to be enough to cover the total cost of the playscape, they did know it would serve as the catalyst to get things going.
That’s because while the Perk Your Park nomination process was underway, Jones says the park’s board was tasked by both the mayor and city council to come up with a plan to replace what had been removed.
“So, we’ve been working on that for months now and the park’s board has made a recommendation for a $650,000 playground to replace the one that was removed and I’m going to take that recommendation to city council at their next meeting on Nov. 7 and we are short a little bit of funding. There is $75,000 from the Perk Your Park, $300,000 that the council has already earmarked but we all knew that we need more money to make a nice playground and I’m going to propose that we make up the difference of approximately $300,000. It’s coming out of the park development fund. It’s a fund that is set aside when developers come and build subdivisions. They do put money into this account so the city can use for community parks, or trails and things like that that the community can use,” said Jones.
Not only has it helped ensure the necessary funding, but Jones says it has also ensured a better timeline to get the project done.
“If the council approves the expenditure and approves the design on Nov. 7, we will work with this vendor and hopefully within the next six months afterward, we will have a new playground out there,” said Jones.
Since 2016, The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), the nation’s leading advocate for parks and recreation, and Niagara Bottling, the family owned
beverage company have been empowering communities to embrace healthy lifestyles by getting residents and visitors alike to enjoy vibrant and family-oriented outdoor spaces.
Throughout their partnership, 17 parks across the United States have benefit from the Perk Your Park Contest.