Improvements to Walter’s Creek Park nearing completion

July 4, 2024 · 0 Comments

Written By Paula Brown

Shelburne families will soon be able to climb, swing and spin at Walter’s Creek Park as updates on the park project suggest construction it is nearing completion.

During town council’s most recent meeting on June 24, Councillor Lindsay Wegener inquired about construction progress at Walter’s Creek Park and questioned when the project was expected to be completed.

“I’ve had a couple of community members reach out to me wanting to know when that will be completed,” said Wegener. “We’ve had a significant amount of rain so I’m assuming that might be part of the reason for why it’s delayed, but just wondering if we could get a brief update on when Walter’s Creek will be completed?”

Walter’s Creek Park, located at 680 Cedar Street, is one of the original park spaces in the Town of Shelburne and was first constructed in 1980. The park initially consisted of mainly greenspace, with a swing set and a curved playground crawl tunnel.

The Town of Shelburne upgraded the park back in 2010, and the existing features at the park included two independent playground structures focused on climbing and sliding activities, a swing set and a climber.

Shelburne Town Council approved the new improvements to the Walter’s Creek Park playground equipment as part of the 2022 and 2023 budget, and the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. The project was budgeted at $85,000.

The two main goals of the Walter’s Creek Park project were to replace and upgrade the play structure equipment and provide accessible elements to the overall park design.

The new design of the playground equipment will focus on providing play experiences that allow for climbing, sliding, spinning, swinging, balancing, and bouldering.

“By incorporating components that allow for graduated levels of challenge, children will be able to enjoy the space throughout their childhood as they develop and increase both strength and skill. Accessibility is also an important part of the design to ensure a space that can be accessed comfortably by all users, of all ages and of all abilities,” said the Town of Shelburne, via the Walter’s Creek Park project page.

Construction on the park project began in April and was initially expected to be completed by early June.

Jim Moss, director of development and operations for the Town of Shelburne, confirmed that the project had seen delays due to wet weather as well as other unforeseen circumstances.

“We did run into issues with wet conditions over there as well as quite a bit more top soil covering the area that we had to get removed,” explained Moss.

He added that the park project would be completed “within the next couple weeks”.