Mississippi county gets closer to its dream of an accessible playground

From the Neshoba Democrat:

Bid specifications are now being compiled for a new handicap accessible playground inside Northside Park after a $30,000 grant from the state Department of Rehabilitation Services completed a years-long fund-raising campaign begun by a woman with cerebral palsy.

Park Commission Chairman David Vowell, who is also president of the Community Development Partnership, told supervisors on Monday that the $34,500 grant will bring the total funding secured for the project to about $124,500.

The playground is estimated to cost about $130,000, he said.

There are other grant proposals pending for the project, Vowell said, along with another fund-raiser still ongoing.

The county received a $65,000 matching grant from the Pearl River Basin and Development District to help fund the handicap playground while about $25,000 has been secured in donations.

"We just want to thank Rep. Scott Bounds for putting us in touch with the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services in applying for this grant," Vowell said. "There are no strings attached to this grant. We just have to put the money up front and then be reimbursed. We are in good shape with this project. We are starting to work on the specifications and will advertise for bids soon."

The other grant from the Pearl River Basin and Development District requires that the program be completed by June 30, 2010.

"A lot of people have worked hard on this and hopefully it will be a reality by late spring or early summer," Vowell said.

The playground was the brainchild of Patricia Nowell Burton who asked the Park Commission back in January 2007 for "just a spot in the park" for handicap children.

Born with cerebral palsy, Burton has worked diligently to help disabled Neshoba County children, overcoming many obstacles of her own to establish a foundation to raise awareness about disabilities while encouraging activities that give individuals with special needs self worth.

She founded the Neshoba County, Philadelphia and Choctaw Disability Children's Foundation a few years ago.

Burton has dreamed of the day when children in wheelchairs would be able to swing in the park.

"I'm 65 years old and there was nothing like that for me as a child," she said in making her request to the Park Commission over two years ago. "I want to make a little bit of difference in the lives of these kids by helping them get out and play."

The new playground will connect to Imagination Fun Station and could include such things as handicap accessible slides, interactive wall games, therapeutic hand swings, play fire trucks and swing sets.