City crews spend winter in the park.

Byline: DIANE DIETZ The Register-Guard

Fancy footwork by Eugene maintenance crews will bring the children of Coraly Avenue a shiny new playground ringed by barefoot-worthy grass by next summer.

The plan began more than a year ago, when maintenance workers realized that $50,000 set aside to renovate Lark Park wouldn't go very far. The money, from a 1998 bond measure, would pay for little more than having a contractor install a sprinkler system.

So the crews decided they would take on the job themselves - squeezing the work into their days during winter's slow months - and spend the money, instead, on play equipment for the kids.

"We wanted to be able to do something really nice for this neighborhood," said Tom Utt, an irrigation man in Eugene since 1965, including the last four years with the city.

Normally the crews are occupied with maintaining the city's 600 acres of developed parks, including the 120 miles of irrigation that keep the parks green.

But workers relish the chance to create something of their own, too, so the Lark Park assignment is a pleasure, Utt said.

The park is a rectangular acre of rough and weedy public space in a dense neighborhood of modest homes along Roosevelt Boulevard north of Highway 99.

It's a rare open spot in the neighborhood with front yards so narrow that a kid can barely turn a cartwheel; and it draws 15 kids or more on sunny afternoons, neighbors say.

Crews will increase the park's "play value" by replacing an old "post and platform" play structure with a new brightly colored contraption with more than double the number of options for climbing, sliding and otherwise playing.

The new structure - likely to be installed in mid-February - will have a spiral slide and a curved slide, a rock climbing wall, a suspension bridge, a wave climber and a corkscrew climber. Nearby will be a new two-seater swing and two plastic animals on giant springs for little people to bounce on.

Mothers will be gratified to know that the city is increasing the playground's "fall zone" by 40 percent. No longer will fast-moving children shoot off the slide and onto the edge of the sidewalk hemming the playground.

Crews will replace the sand underneath with wood chips that are specially engineered to allow wheelchair access.

The park's open field will be leveled, top dressed and reseeded, so children will play Frisbee, soccer and football without tripping on uneven ground.

The park will be easier on the eyes, Utt said. "You'll see trees, shrubbery and green lawn. We are going to establish a healthy turf," he said.

Plans call for 18 new trees meant to bring color to the park in spring and fall, including the pink blooming red horse chestnut, the Autumn Blaze red maple and the Scarlet Spire crab apple.

"It will bring the park from a nice little park to a very nice little park," said Robin Hostick, the landscape architect who drew up the plans.

There'll be several benches, two picnic tables and a barbecue pit, places for people to meet, talk and enjoy each other, said Linda Swisher, chairwoman of the Active Bethel Citizens neighborhood group. "It's an invitation to participate in the neighborhood," she said.

That's no stretch, said Shawn Ebling, who lives just across the street from Lark Park: "Children will want to come and play. People will want to have picnics."

And the playground?

Ebling has children ages 5, 7 and 10 and she said the new playground will be "a real Christmas present. It's so sweet. Those (maintenance) guys are real Santa Clauses."