Four-year old Brielle Sheldon wants to go on the swing at Willow Park, but her 17-month-old sister Brooke is on it. Brielle pulls at her mother Lani’s jacket repeatedly to get her attention and her turn to swing.
Nearby, Krissy Sulic is waiting with her two daughters, Eva and Kora, for their turn on the swings.
This is a snapshot of what is wrong with the park, say the mothers who have formed the Willow Park Neighbourhood Association. The association’s Facebook page, which was launched last week, already has about 60 members.
The tiny, decade-old playground no longer works in a growing community full of children who want to play.
“There is always a fight over the swings, a constant fight,” says Sulic. “There’s not enough for sure.”
The park sits in a densely populated neighbourhood around the intersection of Mamquam and Government roads. A mix of older townhouses and new homes and developments circle the park. The playground includes a swing set with two swings and a multiuse play structure that includes a slide, ladder and tube. There are also two rocking metal characters near the structure.
Parents have dragged a dilapidated wooden picnic bench and another plastic bench to sit on while their children play.
Local parents Kaija Belfry-Munroe and Doug Munroe wrote a letter to the district this fall to point out that there are 785 homes within a half square kilometre around Willow Park and that the homes in the area have a combined assessed value of $205,303,300.
“Meaning that as a group we pay $10,258,800 into the district’s treasury,” said Belfry-Munroe. “With lower costs due to strata ownership of most roads, our neighbourhood is a rather good deal for the district.”
Sheldon says a local daycare uses the park, as do older children after school and on weekends, and there just isn’t enough equipment for children to play.
“The play structure has to be bigger,” she said.
The parents say the only other park within walking distance to their homes is a school playground, and it isn’t right for the community to congregate at the school while school-aged children are inside trying to learn or using the playground themselves.
Sheldon shook her head at the suggestion the parents could fundraise to upgrade the park themselves. People in the area are stretched to the limit just paying to live in Squamish, she said.
“We’re stretched already,” said Sheldon. “Our family does not have the money. That’s it, we are tapped out. This isn’t really a class issue… but if you look at Hospital Hill, those are really nice houses with dual incomes and maybe they have a little more flex in their budgets, but we just don’t.”
Mayor Patricia Heintzman said she thinks it is great when neighbours get organized as the Willow Park association has and acknowledged there is density in the area, but she said a new structure for Willow Park is not currently a district priority.
“We made a list a of couple of years ago on priority parks based on safety issues and Willow Park didn’t make the top of the list,” she said, adding the district tries to upgrade two or three parks a year and at about 12 years old, Willow Park isn’t one of the older parks in the district.
Heintzman also said the district can’t start holding back taxes for one community amenity.
“Everyone pays taxes into the greater whole,” she said.
“You just can’t do that in a budget where you’ve got so many inputs and expenses that are for the common good.”
