Hurricane City Park will be more inclusive to everyone this spring.
The city of Hurricane recently purchased new playground equipment, including a wheelchair-accessible swing and a parent-child swing.
Hurricane Mayor Scott Edwards said he has received more than 100 requests for these two pieces of equipment over the past year.
"Once I saw these two items existed, I knew we had to get them," Edwards said.
The wheelchair-accessible swing has a platform that children in wheelchairs can roll onto, lock themselves in place and swing securely without ever leaving their chair.
The "Expression Swing" is a swing that has two seats facing each other - a large seat for the parent and an attached child size seat for a small child or infant.
This enables parents to safely ride with their child, instead of "putting
your 1-year-old in a swing and hoping for the best," as Edwards put it.
The city bought one of each specialty swing, to try them out. Edwards said that, if they become popular, the city will add more.
"We're doing our best to include everyone," he said. "If we can attract more smaller children, or more folks in wheelchairs, then we'll get more of those types of things."
Emily Kearns, of Red House, has a 6-year-old daughter who uses a wheelchair. Right now, her daughter gets out of the wheelchair and into an infant swing, but won't be able to do that as she gets older.
"When we go to the park, she's often limited, and this allows her to do more things with her brothers and sisters," Kearns said.
She said her daughter would be thrilled to learn of the new swing and said she is excited to take her to the park again.
"Honestly, we don't go to the park right now because it's not enjoyable for her," Kearns said. "I'd really like to see more of the equipment adapted, not just swings."
Kearns said that while the swing is a step in the right direction, she hopes more accessible playground equipment will be added in the future. She works as an occupational therapist and said other families in Putnam County have expressed similar sentiments.
"I have a lot of families who don't take their kids to the park because they feel the same way," Kearns said. "They're so limited to what their kids can get on."
Edwards said he hopes the new equipment also brings in people from areas outside of Hurricane.
The new playground equipment will be installed within the next 30 days, if the weather warms up.
Although the wheelchair-accessible swing and expression swing are more expensive than traditional equipment, Edwards said he feels confident this purchase is a great way to spend taxpayer dollars.
"It feels so good," Edwards said. "As a mayor, you always want to spend it on the right things, and this is absolutely, 100 percent, the right thing to spend the money on."
After the community heard about the swings via Facebook, Edwards said, he's gotten only positive reactions.
In addition to the two new specialty swings, the city will install 12 other items, including a toddler play unit, four new spring seats, a caterpillar crawl tube and an additional swingset.
"I can't wait until summer," Edwards said. "I'm in the park a lot, myself. I can't wait to see people using these new items."
The park also will receive a new bridge at its entrance this summer, said Vanessa Ervin, marketing and development manager. The new bridge will have two lanes and a pedestrian walkway, which should be safer than the existing one-lane bridge.
Construction on the bridge will begin in March and is expected to be completed in May, Ervin said.
Reach Laura Haight at laura.haight@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4843 or follow @laurahaight_ on Twitter.