Archive: Around Town

With some pieces about 40 years old, and ever-increasing usage, the playground in Lansing's Myers Park has been shrinking and wearing down.  Changing safety code and insurance requirements have meant removing or repairing playground structures, and most of the rest is reaching the end of its useful life.  Rebuilding the entire playground will cost an estimated $180,000.  Raising that money is a task the Lansing Community Council has taken on, and the first stage of that will launch November 8th at the Lansing Tops Market.

"We've always been involved in the local community, but we've never done a front-end solicitation for a specific local goal," says Lansing Tops Manager Bob Clinton.  "We have raised money for wider programs that have impact locally, but not local initiatives.  We're really excited about it."

Tops will run a 'Bucks for Bricks' initiative for three weeks to try to raise the first $2,000 of the hoped-for $60,000 that would pay for phase one of a three phase plan.  As customers check out cashiers will ask whether they want to contribute a dollar to the playground.  Paper bricks will be hung on the store walls with the names of those who donate.  The bricks are seen as forming a figurative foundation for the fundraising to come.

The idea was developed after Lansing Community Council President Ed LaVigne, who happens to be the pharmacist at Tops, approached Clinton to tell him of the need.  Clinton was excited about getting the store involved, and at a brainstorming meeting employees came up with the 'Bucks for Bricks' idea. 

Clinton says Lansing has been very good to his store in the ten years since it opened, and he and his staff have enjoyed giving back to the community in smaller ways, such as the Tops booth at Lansing Harbor Festival.  Tops held a corn husking contest with a $50 Tops gift certificate as the grand prize.  The store donated the entry fees to the festival.  With a reshifting of the company over a year ago, the chain management is more open to stores taking a larger role in community fundraising projects.

"It's a really exciting time," Clinton says.  "We have set our goal of $2,000.  I have no doubt that it's going to be a success, but whether we hit the goal or not we're going to keep doing things for the community.  This is the first step."


The overall plan by Ludlowville playground planning company Parkitects calls for three phases of a design that has areas for different aged kids and adults, with new units that both meet modern safety codes and provide more opportunities for real exercise in a time when obesity is considered a national health issue.  Phase 1 will pay fo a new ground treatment, swings for bigger kids, a play structure and an artificial rock.  Phase 2 is targeted toward a climbing device and a jungle gym.  The third phase includes a slides and climbing area and swings for smaller kids.  The ground treatment will provide a safer play area as well as making it easier for park staff to mow around the playground.

"They're great people to work with, very knowledgeable," says Park Superintendent Steve Colt.  "Two, they're actually local.  It's one of the top playground companies around and they happen to be here in Ludlowville.  Three, they're on New York State Bid, so for their equipment they're a guaranteed accepted low price by the State of New York.  Those three things add up to be a big plus for us.  Their equipment is excellent stuff, really well made.  It's the best stuff I've seen."

Colt says that the new playground has been designed so that it's not an all-or-nothing proposition.  While he and LaVigne hope eventually to raise the full $180,000, he says he will be happy with as much as the community is willing to offer.  He notes that the current playground is tired and shrinking, and that park usage went up this year, and it is likely to keep going up.  He says that it is the same economic downturn that will make it hard to raise the money that also make it vital to rebuild the playground now.

"Folks are just staying closer to home," he says.  "Parks are considered the one of the last places you can go to get good value for your dollar, so that's what people are doing.  So it's ironic that what makes it difficult to raise funds is also very important because it's the same people that are going to end up here to do things.  You have to be prepared for that."

He approached LaVigne after the successful log cabin campaign because with shrinking town department budgets and the need to take care of emergencies in the parks, ballfields, and marina that may eat up shrinking dollars, it would be impossible to fund the playground with tax dollars.


LaVigne sees the 'Bucks for Bricks' program as the beginning of a larger campaign that will use the lessons learned from raising $17,000 for the North Log Cabin in only four months this summer.  He captained a series of initiatives that ranged from letters to local businesses to chicken barbecues and a breakfast to pay to reassemble the 1791 log cabin that originally stood near the corner of Conlon and Searles roads, about three and a half miles north of Myers Park.  In a few weeks he plans to start phase two of that project with a letter campaign to local residents to try to raise another $10,000 to pay for the roof, for period-style doors and windows, and the chinking that goes between the logs to insulate log cabins.  He plans to use the same techniques for the playground.

"We hope to raise between two and five thousand with the first part at Tops," he says.  "We're reaching out to banks and corporations for the first facet of that.  We're also doing platinum ($5,000 or more), gold ($2,500 - $4,999), silver ($1000 level), bronze ($500 level) levels of donations.  Your company will be recognized at the playground.  It's like a 20 year sponsorship.  The playground should last 20 years, so a $5,000 sponsorship really boils down to $250 a year.  There will be something there that will have their name on it."

LaVigne notes that local companies have been generous with Community Council projects over the past.  Numerous local businesses and individuals have contributed to Lansing Harbor Festival, as well as to a general fund that has been used to give money to Lansing programs such as the Lansing Older Adult Program, Drop-in Center, Parks and Recreation programs, the Lansing Community Library, and Lansing schools, among others.

"We have reached out for corporate sponsors in the past," LaVigne says.  "Cargill has been very generous with us for the Harbor Festival.  Tompkins Trust Company and Ridge Road Imports have been corporate sponsors.  There have been a variety of corporate sponsors on that level.  We also use the technique for the log cabin where we advertised to local businesses that for $150 we will list you in the Harbor Festival program.  It doesn't mean we can't also do it with the playground."


The first step will begin at Tops, and managers are working to put together the bricks and signs that will be needed for 'Bucks for Bricks.'  Front End Manager Jen Chierchio is charged with getting cashiers excited about asking people to donate.  Clinton notes that about half his management team lives in Lansing, and many customers' children play on the playground.

"I'm looking forward to the local involvement for our store," he says.  "We've always been involved.  We've been involved with the Lansing Harbor Festival and a couple of other small things, but this is the real first step forward on a real community partnership."

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