‘A destination spot’: West Hants opens new fully accessible playground in Windsor

It’s not uncommon to hear laughter and squeals of joy coming from Windsor’s Elmcroft Park these days.

The municipality removed the old, dated equipment and created an accessible, no barrier playground over the summer that families are flocking to.

“I was ecstatic to see the kids on it the other day,” West Hants Mayor Abraham Zebian said while visiting the site.

“There must have been maybe seven or eight little kids on it. All you hear is the laughter.”

That wasn’t a regular occurrence on the old equipment, Zebian said.

“We had the old one at the end of the property here. It served its purpose. It had been used for years upon years upon years, and it just became obsolete and outdated, so unsafe,” he said.

“There was a little vandalism, pieces here and there over the years. It took its toll, and it was just time for a refresh.”

The playground was repositioned to the front of the park and earlier this year, council agreed with the recreation department’s recommendation to replace it.

It’s “a little more accessible, closer to the front. Safer for use, and I think it just works better for the flow, and the ultimate vision for the whole area,” Zebian said of the new playground.

“There’s more that’s being envisioned right now. So this is just the first part, and it makes sense to put it here.”

PlayPower Canada designed and installed the structure that’s intended for children ages two years and up. It has a child capacity of 142.

It features slides, an inclusive whirl, a buzzy bumblebee spring rider, lucky ladybug spring rider, loop climber, a hexagon shape climber, saddle seats, and musical instruments.

“This is crawling with kids when school is out,” said Kathy Kehoe, the director of community development for West Hants.

Kehoe said the project cost to date is $413,099.28 plus taxes and was designed to meet the Nova Scotia Built Environment Accessibility Standard.

“This was a collaboration,” she said.

Kehoe said the department consulted with groups and organizations to ensure the playground was accessible, including the local accessibility committee and Tracy’s Place, an adaptive adult day program in Windsor.

Michel Bourgeois, chairman of the West Hants accessibility advisory committee, said the group tries to support projects and initiatives the municipality is proposing.

“So, we provided some best practises on accessible playground design and types of equipment that they could be looking for when they were putting it out for bids and whatnot to try to get the best possible results,” he said.

Bourgeois had high praise for the final product.

He said the playground is already loved by those who have visited, and it represents a tangible sign of the municipality’s commitment to invest in accessible infrastructure.

“It’s a double-edged sort of goodness,” Bourgeois said.

The artificial turf, instead of pea gravel, wood chips or an uneven surface, further demonstrates that investment.

“The municipality is showing commitment to accessibility, to inclusion, in what they’re building,” he said.

Artificial turf, for example, allows someone with mobility challenges to access the entire playground, rather than limiting them to using one piece of equipment.

“Certainly, the turf has a more aesthetic appeal, but the benefit of that is it allows access to all the equipment versus making a path to a specific piece,” said Bourgeois.

“So this kind of design, which lets somebody travel throughout the whole space, really fosters that socialization, friend making, which could be difficult if you’re sort of segregated by design to one piece.”

Both Zebian and Kehoe said the municipality is striving to ensure everyone can enjoy what West Hants has to offer.

“Everybody has a right to use anything within our region. We don’t want anybody to be left out,” Zebian said.

Kehoe said the recreation department looks for ways to ensure people feel included in its programming and special projects.

“So everything that we do, we’re putting on the accessibility lens and trying to do our best to make everything inclusive,” she said.

There have been some concerns expressed about the location of the new play structure as Stannus Street has had multiple combined sewer overflow (CSO) events in the past five years.

However, the mayor said that is not a current concern for the park.

“We haven’t had a CSO in this park with the exception of the 2023 floods, which, the whole community flooded that day,” Zebian said. “So online rhetoric is just that: online rhetoric.”

Zebian said the municipality has big plans for the overall site, which is located at 78 Stannus St., adjacent to the Hants Aquatic Centre. He described the playground as the first phase, and noted “the sky is the limit” on what future phases could contain. Kehoe said she will be bringing forward another request at budget time.

Zebian said the municipality would also entertain donations to get the site closer to the final vision.

“If there’s some kind, willing philanthropist out there who likes to stick a name on a sign, we’d accept a large donation and we can do it all at once,” Zebian said with a laugh.

For those who haven’t checked out the new playground, Zebian encourages them to stop by.

“It’s a destination spot,” Zebian said. “You’re coming in to do your banking or grocery shopping. Why not bring the littles and let them enjoy an hour of play on a great, accessible piece of equipment?”