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Rotary eyes handicap-accessible playground
The Rotary Club of Saipan is looking to erect a handicap-accessible playground at the Sugar King Park—a regular playground that is also accessible to those with disabilities.
“The Saipan Mayor’s Office is willingly allocating the property for us to build the playground and also help us clean and prepare the area to make sure that the handicapped parking is more accessible,” said Rotary member Tatiana Babauta, who is coordinating the project, after Tuesday’s Rotary Club meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.
Babauta noted that there will only be one disability parking in the area, and that formal paperwork might be in the works. However, Babauta said that official support would be coming from the Saipan Mayor’s Office.
According to Saipan Mayor’s Office director of field operations Joann Aquino, Babauta and Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang met last Friday to discuss the park, which she notes would be the first of its kind on Saipan.
A timeline for the project has yet to be set, Babauta said, and price quotations have yet to be finalized. She did, however, note that the playground would be situated near the vendors in the park.
Majority of funding raised from the annual Las Vegas Night of the Rotary Club would be funneled toward the project, Babauta said.
“It all depends on how much we raise. Hopefully, we raise enough to fund the playground right away,” she said, adding that pricing quotations are in the works.
Babauta said they are looking at accessible playgrounds in the U.S. mainland for ideas, such as the one in Gloucester County, New Jersey, which was also erected by the Rotary Club in the state.
