Wednesday, November 20, 2019 ~ LANGFORD
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
A new playground park was officially opened in the McCormick Meadows neighbourhood within the Happy Valley area of Langford during an overcast Saturday noon-hour on Saturday November 16.
The official ribbon cutting was handled with some mighty big red-handled scissors by Acting Mayor Lanny Seaton (who chairs the city’s Parks, Recreation, Culture and Beautification Committee) along with Councillor Denise Blackwell (and her granddaughter Piper) and Councillor Norma Stewart.
Also attending were the McCormick family who previously owned the land, and representatives of the McCormick Meadows developer including Jim Hartshorne, Mike Hartshorne and Rohan Rupf.
About 100 people attended, including McCormick Meadows and south Langford neighbourhood families whose kids enjoyed the fun playground equipment. The mini zipline was a favourite activity. The colourful rubberized playground surface is an attractive safety feature. Guests enjoyed honey crisp and apple cider.
“We’ve been waiting for a little bit of time to do this,” said Mike Hartshorne. “We are so excited to officially open the park.”
Mike Hartshorne said the park evolved by way of “the City of Langford‘s vision for an affordable family-friendly neighbourhood and the need for a significant park in that neighbourhood”. “This playground fits the bill for a significant park,” said Hartshorne.
The McCormick Meadows developer was part of the planning and design of the playground park. “The community feels good, and this is a huge jewel in the crown for it. We are pleased to hand it over to the people of this community,” said Mike Hartshorne to the crowd before the ribbon was cut.
It took about five years of planning to bring the park to fruition, and developer Jim Hartshorne of Keycorp Developments was thanked for his consideration and persistence to see the park come to fruition.
“Lanny Seaton was familiar with the site prior to development. He had ideas for location of the park and brought his energy to it,” said Mike Hartshorne.
The park is located at 3564 Honeycrisp Avenue, off Braeburn Avenue (off Happy Valley Road).
Seaton walked the site five years ago with Jim Hartshorne at the planning phase. They decided on the location that backs onto the field. Seaton thanked City parks planner Tara and also Rohan Rupf of McCormick Meadows for working together and “showing how government and companies can work together”.
There were 1,700 tires used to create the rubberized play-park surface. “Those are tires that didn’t go into the landfill,” said Seaton. Tire Stewardship BC provided a grant of $30,000 as part of providing the rubberized surface. “They’ve been a really good partner for us,” said Seaton, adding that it’s the same sort of bouncy surface that was installed at Sarah Beckett Park on Glen Lake Road this past summer.
Seaton thanked Summer Breeze Child Care Ltd and the Happy Valley Community Board for letters of support for the tire stewardship grant. The rubberized surface is made of recycled tires that are therefore not added to the landfill.
“This turned out so nice, it’s so beautiful. Langford is always looking for new locations to build parks,” said Seaton, saying another local playground park will be opening up in Happy Valley next year.
This park — like other parks and also the trails in Langford — are not lit for nighttime use, in accordance with City of Langford policy, says Councillor Denise Blackwell. The idea is that there be no incentive for people to hang out in parks at night. However, lighting might also prevent crime or other incidents because would-be perpetrators would be visible; this is a basic deterrent principle promoted by police for household security.