HARLINGEN — Under a whimsical maze, area children in wheelchairs will use ramps, tunnels and slides to exercise while having fun.
Tomorrow, city commissioners will take the first steps to build three all-inclusive playgrounds in city parks.
“It’s going to be fantastic for the community,” City Manager Dan Serna said yesterday. “We’ve never had something like this in the city.”
As part of an agreement, the city will work with the Harlingen school district to build all-inclusive playgrounds at Pendleton and Victor parks.
“We have a great partnership with the school district and this is another example of how that partnership benefits the community,” Serna said.
The city will build a third playground, funded by the Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation, at Lon C. Hill Park.
As part of the project, attorney Rollins Koppel has donated $100,000 to name a playground for his late wife Amalie, who taught 30 years at Harlingen schools.
Serna said the city and school officials developed the playgrounds’ designs.
“If someone’s wheelchair bound, they’ll be able to access components without leaving the chair,” Serna said. “They’re designed to engage the children so they can use them without any difficulty. It gets them out and gets them engaged.”
In a meeting tomorrow, commissioners are expected to approve an agreement in which the city and school district will split the $800,000 cost of funding construction of two playgrounds at Pendleton and Victor parks.
Last year, voters approved a 10-cent tax increase allowing the school district to earmark $400,000 for the project.
For the school district, the playgrounds will help students with special needs learn outside the classroom.
District officials plan to bus special needs students to the parks as part of field trips, said Oscar Tapia, the district’s assistant superintendent of district operations.
“We’ll integrate it into our educational program,” Tapia said. It allows all children to play alongside each other, he said. “It gets them to exercise on swings and bars to help with physical development.”
The city will use the Legacy Foundation’s $425,000 grant to build another all-inclusive playground at Lon C. Hill Park.
In tomorrow’s meeting, commissioners are expected to approve the playground’s design and authorize staff to buy equipment and install it
Serna said he expects construction to begin within two months but he couldn’t offer a completion date.
