Estevan is looking to the community to decide between two play structures that could go up at Churchill Park.

Nine designs were part of a tender that was discussed at Monday's city council meeting.

The parks department sent out its recommendation that 1-Stop Playground's design should be accepted and construction moved forward, with manager Shannon Wanner detailing the proposals.

Councillor Kirsten Walliser was part of the planning process for the park and thinks some more community input would be valued.

"Early this fall I joined with our parks manager and our marketing manager to host an open house. That was also done in conjunction with a survey of the community about what was important to them to see in a park and there was quite an appetite to provide feedback."

"As much as I like the play park that our parks manager has selected, I would really like to go back to the community with two options and let them participate in the decision. So I would ask that we put forward the park that Shannon has selected as well as one additional park and my suggestion would be the Park and Play and the 1-Stop playground." 

The last survey by the group took four days, meaning that such a move would likely only impact construction by a week.

In terms of price comparison, the two playgrounds are close, with Play and Park's design coming in at $297,830.35 and 1-Stop's design costing $298,736.52.

Both playgrounds meet all six design criteria set out in the original tender, including a budget of $300,000, an accessibility plan, shade, and seating for parents and caregivers.

A motion was then forwarded to decide which play structure to go forward with based on the survey, with Councillor Travis Frank seconding that.

Council will pick the issue back up at the next city council meeting in January.

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