Walking onto the court at Triangle Park with a basketball in hand on a warm Tuesday evening, Philomath Mayor Christopher McMorran was certainly no stranger to that particular spot in the community.
“My best friend grew up in that house,” McMorran said, gesturing to a two-story home on the other side of College Street. “So I spent a lot of time in this park. I remember the little backhoe over there and over here we would play basketball.”
McMorran was among those celebrating the city’s reinvestment in the aging neighborhood park, which is located on College in between Seventh and Eighth. A project estimated at $23,000 featured a new inclusive swing with a bucket seat, new benches, a new roof on the picnic pavilion and an expanded play area with fresh engineered wood fiber.
“I think it’s just a really important way for people to get out of their house and hang out with their neighbors, have fun and create,” McMorran said. “I feel like every time I come by this park, there’s some kids out here playing basketball or playing on the slide, so it’s a great way to get people out enjoying the community.”
The special event included games and prizes, face painting and freezer pops in an informal, party-vibe atmosphere with no public officials at a podium giving speeches. Besides the mayor, Police Chief Dave Gurski brought his police vehicle with the lights running.
Other city staff, several city councilors and a few committee volunteers were in attendance as well. Benton County Commissioner Pat Malone and former Philomath mayor Eric Niemann even stopped in to check out the park along with what appeared to be a few families from the neighborhood.
“On the north side of town, we don’t really have any sort of citywide parks like we do on the south side of town,” McMorran said, referring to examples such as Philomath City Park and Marys River Park and Natural Area. “Instead, we have a lot of these little areas for just the neighborhood to congregate.”
Triangle Park appears to date back at least to the mid-1990s — that estimate based on a newspaper ad published in July 1995 asking for volunteers to help assemble playground equipment at the site. During the summer of 1999, pavement from an abandoned portion of North Eighth Street was removed so the park could be expanded.
In more recent years, Philomath Lions Club volunteers in the spring of 2018 spruced up the park’s appearance by painting the shelter and swing set.
Making improvements to the park have been on the city’s to-do list for the past few years.
“We have our Parks and Trails Master Plan and one of the things identified in there was the need to just sort of boost some of our existing parks,” McMorran said. “I think it can be fun to build a shiny new park but sometimes the best things are the things we already have — they just need a little love and attention.”
City Manager Chris Workman said the project was outlined in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan, which includes replacement schedules for things like worn-out playground equipment.
Inclusive playground bucket swings, like the one at Triangle Park, are designed to be accessible and enjoyable for children of all abilities, including those with physical or developmental disabilities. It was a must add in the project’s early planning but the scope expanded.
“As long as we’re putting in a new swing set, let’s expand out the fall surface area and make it safer, let’s add a few park benches,” Workman said about the approach to the project. “It’s all money that the city sets aside every year for these kinds of smaller park improvements.”
The Capital Improvement Plan adopted this past April budgeted $30,000 for the Triangle Park upgrades. The project came in around $7,000 under that figure.
Similar types of projects appear to be on the horizon in other city parks.
“This was one of the first ones we’re doing in that sort of planning phase, refreshing this park,” McMorran said, “But then we’ll be getting to some of the other parks soon and replacing play equipment and doing more of the upgrades.”
