Proposal to Renovate the Gunter Park By Brooke Hogan

1. Proposal to Renovate the Gunter Park By Brooke Hogan By Brooke Hogan

2. Introduction • A number of Gunter citizens have created a community group to lobby for renovating our neighborhood park. Gunter city park is located at 200 W Elm St, Gunter, TX. It is the only park located in our community. The playground is rundown and unsafe- the equipment is almost 60 years of age and doesn’t meet today’s standards for a playground. There is a lot of wasted and unused space and needs more upgrading basically. Numerous families are forced to drive to Frisco, Prosper, Sherman, etc, due to our parks poor condition.

3. Background information • The parks needs to be renovated for many reasons. • The children aren't getting enough exercise with the lack of poor equipment. • The location of the park is almost the first thing you see when you drive into Gunter and is where the Gunter Elementary students go and play for recess. • The restrooms are never cleaned and there always locked. • There is too much wasted or unused space. • The wooden benches are chipping, which causes splinters. • There is not very many visual sights to see (flowers, tree, bushes) • Needs more sports fields/courts.

4. Children • Children: There is a residential community surrounding the playground. Gunter Elementary school, who uses the park, is one of them, but like I said it doesn’t reach today’s standards.

5. Community . Community: Playgrounds have the amazing ability to bring people together and express the interest and talents of the community. We could have some students from the three schools to paint a mural, create sculpture, or contribute in the park in other ways.

6. Health • Health: There is no question that play and time outdoors are paramount in the healthy development of kids- particularly with today’s epidemic of childhood obesity. Without a safe, accessible playground hundreds of local children are at a disadvantage in terms of development healthy habits and lifestyle.

7. Equipment • Equipment- some of the equipment we have is old and not very safe for the children. Plus we don’t have very much to please the kids. We don’t have a slide nor a seesaw. Adding in more of play things will attract more people.

8. Unused and Wasted Space • Unused and wasted space- Our park is a pretty decent size for things to be added in. We have a tennis court that’s not even being used so changing that to a basket ball court or redoing the tennis court. Also our park has space not being used. To this…… Changing this…….

9. Unused Space We have a lot of unused space. Maybe adding a pool to fill the space up.

10. Sustainability • Sustainability- One of the big things that the community wants is a cleaner restroom. If a lot of citizens come to visit the park on a daily basis, restrooms would be a number one thing that would help out. Also if we made the restrooms sustainable, we could hire someone to clean them.

11. Location Location- The location of the park is near the Gunter elementary school. The third and fourth graders go over to the park to play for recess, and some neighborhood kids go and play there for fun. With that, Gunter park should would be even more extensively if this were a safe and well equipped park.

12. Visual Designs • Our park has little trees or flowers. Most people tend to be attracted to bright and colorful things that are appealing to the eye. A walking path was one of the main things on the park survey. Landscaping would minimize maintenance and beatify the sites. We have enough room to make the walking path or bike trail enjoyable for all the citizens.

13. Solution • Here are some ideas we have for changing the Gunter park. • Maximize the park with safer equipment. • Replace trees that have been chopped down. • Include ample seating for parents and care takers. • Add visual barriers around the the whole park. • Provide an infrastructure for community stewardship and maintenance of the park. • Enclose the park with fencing for improved safety. • Provide walking trail/ bike trail with visual sights.

14. Cost • We did some research about the prices for new playing equipment and $5,000-$8000 was the cheapest that we could find. Also adding in other things would also cost a few $1000’s. If you buy your equipment separately, it would be more expensive to renovate. Other than the equipment adding park benches, soccer fields, basketball goals, walking trails, and etc, will probably add up to $40,000.

15. Volunteering and fundraising • Approximately, are park budget is around $2000. With only that amount of money, nothing can really be done, but with fundraising, donating, and volunteering ideas maybe there is a possibility. Also Grants can help a lot, too. Having a bake sell and selling raffle tickets are both good ways to raise money. For donating, our community could help out my donating money, donating plants like flowers and trees, and donating equipment, are good ways to donate. Volunteer work could be done after we raise enough money.

16. Gunter park proposal • As you know, The Gunter park needs fixing up to be done. Its rundown and unsafe for our community. With all that being said, reinforcing the park would be a positive thing to do for our Town of Gunter.