Jamestown School gets safety equipment

Jamestown School PTO was awarded as $20,000 grant for recycled tire use from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which they are using this spring to lay new ground cover underneath the existing playground equipment.
Jamestown School PTO was awarded as $20,000 grant for recycled tire use from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which they are using this spring to lay new ground cover underneath the existing playground equipment.

Recess is a little more creative this spring for Jamestown Elementary School students who are playing elsewhere from their normal

playground equipment.

That's because the school's PTO was awarded a $20,000 grant from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to lay new safety coverings, made of recycled tires, underneath the equipment.

The despised pea gravel ground cover, which would be tracked inside and was rarely deep enough to meeting safety guidelines, will be gone, said project manager and PTO treasurer Michael Lawson.

The labor part of the project began in February, but this has been more than a year's process for application, waiting and planning. Excavation is nearly complete and the next step will be pouring the concrete base. Lawson said he hopes the tiles will be set and the playground reopened before the end of this school year.

"I'd love for the kids to get on the tile before the end of school," Lawson said. "We plan to do a ribbon-cutting and invite people to see it."

The rubber ground cover will be laid underneath three separate play apparatus with connecting walkways, also making it ADA compliant.

"We're a small school with not a lot of money to invest," Lawson said. "We did what we could with $20,000."

As a father of a second-grader and another who will enter kindergarten this fall, Lawson said he is excited to see the children's reaction to the new tiles but more importantly he is pleased to know the play area will be safer.

In addition to improving the playground safety and providing the funds to do it, this grant project also provided a chance for community involvement and developed a community recycling program.

Lawson was able to call on the expertise and equipment of several local people, from transporting the base rock to FFA members volunteering.

Part of the PTO's obligation by receiving this grant was community education. They chose to instigate a community recycling program.

"We wanted to bring awareness to students and to the community about recycling," Lawson said.

At the school and in town, bins have been set up for cardboard, paper, glass, metal and plastic.

"The recycled tires are a great focus," Lawson said. "We can keep items out of landfills."