By Ryan Duey

The City of Washington has successfully gathered enough Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) surveys to apply for a grant for a new playground. The city needed 485 surveys from residents meeting LMI status to satisfy the 51% population requirement.

Over recent months, city and playground committee members worked diligently to collect these surveys, including a final push over the past week and a half to gather over 100 more. The final count showed that 63% of respondents met the income guidelines. The North Central Regional Planning Commission tabulated the surveys.

Now that the City has gathered the necessary surveys they can move forward with plans for a new playground. The grant application is due in the next couple of months, with the City needing to contribute 50% of the cost. The committee would like to plan for a $400,000 playground. The next step is to put in a design to get costs and ideas for the new playground.