By Taylor Stevens

West Jordan - The city council voted unanimously at its Aug. 12 meeting to approve a purchase order for playground equipment and installation at 10 city parks with a dollar amount set not to exceed $507,000. 

The purchase is part of a larger project that was recently approved by the council, made possible by a four million dollar bond, to improve the safety and quality of park equipment across the city. 

“We have some playgrounds that are about 20 years old,” said Kim Wells, West Jordan’s public information officer. “Life of playground equipment is 15 years.” 

Recently, the city has had to close some parks because of unsafe equipment, and this purchase order will help fund improvements at 24 parks in West Jordan.

Of the $4 million, $1,177,500 will go to playground equipment, $440,000 will be used to replace park pavilions, $250,000 will be used for sprinkler upgrades and the remaining $90,000 will be used for improvements at Ron Wood Baseball Park, according to Mayor Kim Rolfe in the city’s July newsletter. 

The city budgets half a million dollars each year to go toward park repairs, but found that it would be cheaper to borrow money now and do the improvements all at once than to spread them out over multiple years, Wells said. 

“Back in 2010, the city put together a list of park projects that they needed to do to improve safety,” Wells said. “It’s quite a big list, and they’ve been trying to figure out the best way to implement these repairs to make it cost effective. They didn’t want to raise taxes, and this way of bonding accomplishes that. It also protects the kids when they’re playing; it makes things a lot more safe.”

The equipment and installation order the city approved Aug. 12 will go toward improving the first 10 parks on the city’s list.