Wallace Marine Park Updates in the Works, Riverfront Park to Open New Playground

By Casey Chaffin, The West Side Newspaper

The May meeting of the West Salem Redevelopment Advisory Board (WSRAB) was light on West Salem updates, with the exception of a discussion for a potential opportunity to modernize the Wallace Marine Park softball complex.

Gretchen Bennett, the City of Salem’s Community Services Director, gave a brief overview of a project that’s still in the “idea stage.” The city is looking into a matching grant offered by Travel Oregon to update the softball fields and increase their current recreational and competitive use.

“The complex draws national teams and it's just terrific for baseball and softball, both for local recreation as well as drawing in people who come and stay in hotels and eat at our restaurants,” Bennett said. “So, it's just a really positive thing.”

The upgrades are motivated by a slight decrease in use of the park. “We're starting to lose a little business to people who run turf fields,” Bennett said.

Updates would include replacing the fields with turf, similar to the project recently completed at Geer Park in NE Salem. The project would also include upgrading current lighting to be more efficient and cost-effective with LED bulbs.

“The idea of upgrading is to get more focused light on the playing field while reducing light pollution,” said Rob Romanek, a parks planning manager.

The project is still in the earliest phases of brainstorming and does not yet have a set budget. Depending on the funding the city is able to raise, the project could add turf on only one field or on all five.

Bennett said they’re currently collecting information to make presentations to potential funders, including local businesses and the city council. The Travel Oregon grant, which could match funds, closes July 1. Bennett said there will be more information on the project once they learn the outcome of that grant cycle.

Just across the bridge, big improvements to Riverfront Park’s playground are in the works. Construction is now ongoing at the site. Romanek presented on those improvements, which include expanding the footprint of the playground and making it more accessible.

Romanek reported that the current playground has reached the “end of its useful life,” at over 20 years old.

“So it's time to replace it,” Romanek said. “While replacing it, we saw an opportunity to also expand it and make it a place that met more needs in our community.”

The design of the playground is inspired by the natural environment and local wildlife, and will expand north, interrupting a current park path. Choosing a design that interrupted the flow of traffic was added as a safety measure, to make sure playing children aren’t in the traffic of speeding bikes. New paths are being constructed that flow through and around the play area to accommodate pedestrians.

In addition to being bigger, the playground has also been designed to allow children of different physical abilities, including those who use wheelchairs, to navigate and use the play structure safely. This includes an ADA-accessible ramp that leads up to the play structure and a wider bridge within the structure.

The city received feedback from families of children with disabilities, encouraging them to make the play structure large enough to accommodate multiple wheelchair-using children at once, as families with children in wheelchairs often form social groups that could use the park at the same time.

“It's a play space designed to accommodate children of all abilities where they can socialize and play together,” Romaek said.

The playground will also include an area with smaller play equipment for younger children, and an expanded number of swings. Romanek estimates that the playground should be ready to open in mid-to-late summer.

The WSRAB meets on the first Wednesday of every month from 7:30 a.m-9:00 a.m. Their meetings are open to the public and are held in-person at the City’s Urban Development Department on 350 Commercial St NE in Salem. Recordings of the meetings are streamed live via the City of Salem Urban Development YouTube channel. Meeting agendas and minutes are available on the City of Salem website.