By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The Dream Playground community build got under way Tuesday with a swarm of volunteers ready for action. They arrived to find the site pocked with post holes and waiting for wood, metal and composite posts. Several chop saw tables, some set up under cover, were manned and cutting away, getting the pieces cut to length for others to begin layout.
We caught up with Foundation President Steve Methner, who had his hands full coordinating the various teams, and got a better idea of the goals of the next couple of days.
“So, we’ll have pretty much all of the posts for the big structures and the fence set today, is the goal. We probably will have one big concrete day and it’ll probably be Thursday. And we’ll have a wheelbarrow brigade of volunteers taking concrete out of the truck and into the various forms where it needs to get set. It’s going to take a lot of wheelbarrows and a lot of volunteers.”
Methner says they can use all the wheelbarrows they can get on concrete day, and people to push them.
Things are going to happen fast this week, thanks in part to the perfect weather forecast.
“By the end of the week, it should really look like a playground. We should be putting the turret tops on Thursday afternoon, so we have a crane coming in Thursday afternoon to do that. And it should really start looking like a playground by Friday afternoon.”
More volunteers and their cordless power tools are needed, especially for the evening shifts. Sign up at padreamplayground.org.
(Staff photos. Below, Steve Methner (left) and David Timeo)
