Next year at this time, local residents should be able to work on upper body strength on a trapeze rack or get their heart rate going on a cardio walker in a new outdoor exercise area planned for Philomath City Park.
Assistant City Manager Chelsea Starner went through details of the latest planned addition to local parks during Tuesday’s Philomath Park Advisory Board meeting. Based on a proposed configuration in the available space, the fitness area will feature eight exercise stations.
“I think you have done a really good job of looking at it and getting public input,” Starner told the park board members. “I just think people are excited to have this new equipment.”
The city set aside $50,000 in its 2025-26 capital improvement plan for the project with those dollars coming out of revenue raised through park system development charges — the one-time fees that are collected from new development to help fund park expansion or improvements.
Starner said the equipment and freight cost is coming in at around $25,000. The labor will be performed in-house by Public Works employees.
If funds remain, an extra piece of exercise equipment could be added or a bench or two could be installed.
Park Advisory Board Chair Larry Sleeman and Mayor Christopher McMorran solicited feedback from the public at the Philomath Farmers’ Market on July 27. More than 100 people were reportedly surveyed and the top seven pieces of equipment identified (listed in order of the number of votes):
- Cardio walker (aerobic)
- Balance board station (balance)
- Body curl station (core)
- Balance beam station (balance)
- Sit up station (core)
- Lat pull down (muscle)
- Trapeze rack (muscle)
In addition, a knee lift (core) station will be added as part of the requirements of an incentive program that the company is offering. Just missing the cut by three votes was a chest press station.
“After we finished that day and looked at them, there wasn’t one piece of equipment that was standing out but there were a few pieces that people just didn’t want,” Sleeman said in reference to the survey results. “So I saw it as more of a process of elimination.”
The three pieces of equipment that received the fewest votes included a hand cycle (aerobic), push-up bars (muscle) and recumbent bike (aerobic).
The Philomath City Council in its strategic plan identified the installation of new exercise equipment at the park as a goal under “Community Wellbeing and Quality of Life.”
The exercise area will feature an engineered wood fiber surface, the same seen at a few city playgrounds, as well as a pathway. Starner added that the equipment will be primarily blue with orange accent and gray decking.
“As a staff, we looked at a couple of different options and I think our priority was having something that is bright and is going to attract people to it,” Starner said. “You can go both ways — you can make it brown and it blends into the environment but there’s a lot going on at City Park, so we wanted to make sure that people see it.”
The city proposed the new fitness area to be situated in an area across the road north of the skatepark, northeast of the main playground, east of where the old caretaker’s place had been located and west of Newton Creek.
“I think the one thing that had come up is you don’t want it to be so close to everything that people don’t want to use it but we are going to try to tuck it just a little bit — not too far back so it’s not covered by trees — but we’re going to try to tuck it in there,” Starner said. “The available space, we think it serves a lot of purposes.”
For starters, Starner said the exercise area would not be located very far from the main playground, envisioning a situation where kids could play while mom or dad works out. In addition, the park’s new restrooms and a parking area are nearby.
The decommissioned exercise area had been fairly hidden in the southeast corner of the park.
“The area where it was located is a pretty wet area and that’s why we initially moved away from it and looked at some other options,” Starner said.
In addition to the preferred location, another spot that had been considered was located across the roadway from the ballfield.
The city plans to purchase the equipment from MRC Recreation, a nationwide company with Oregon-based vendors.
The suggested project timeline places installation next year in the spring or early summer after the ground starts to dry out from the winter weather. Starner said the equipment will need to be ordered by Oct. 15 to take advantage of the incentive offer.
“Hopefully we’ll get it installed by the end of the fiscal year,” Starner said, which would be June 30. “That’s what the city manager and I are pushing for. It was a priority for the City Council’s strategic plan.”
The Park Advisory Board members discussed the plans with Starner, shared views and asked questions but were not required to take an official vote. All four members in attendance nodded in approval to move the project forward to the City Council.
City Manager Chris Workman, who briefly observed the meeting, thanked the park board members for their work and also Starner for spearheading the project.
“It’s great to be able to take that out to the public and get their input and make sure they feel like they’ve got that buy-in as well,” Workman said. “Thank you for doing that extra step … that public involvement in the process that’ll pay dividends when it goes in.”
