Maurice park to receive play area upgrade

MAURICE — A decision made during last week’s Village of Maurice Board of Aldermen meeting will make local kids happy, and parents, too.
The board voted 3-0 to purchase new playground equipment. The board approved a $24,000 bid from Kincade Recreation based in Livingston, Texas.
The cost of the project will be covered largely by a pair of $10,000 donations. Village officials will also use funds generated from no-longer-collected hotel/motel tax.
“This will help us to refurbish our park,” Alderwoman Phyllis Johnson said. “Thank goodness. It’s nice equipment and I think the kids will be really happy to have it.”
This is the first time Maurice’s park will have new playground equipment since the early 1980s.
“It’s time and in definite need of change,” Johnson said.
That change is thanks to generosity.
“We are extremely appreciative of the two donations,” Maurice Mayor Wayne Theriot said.
The equipment is expected to be installed in about three months.
“Hopefully it will be ready for the fall,” Maurice Mayor Wayne Theriot said. “After that, our citizens will be able to enjoy it for many years to come.”
The equipment has an estimated life of about 20 years. However, the new playground is not the only improvement that will benefit the park’s future.
Theriot said the account generated by the hotel/motel tax, designed to benefit youth sports and recreation will still have $25,000 remaining. Those funds will be utilized for the creation of a walking trail at the park. Maurice will receive $50,000 from the state through a grant to subsidize the remainder of the project’s cost.
“It’s a matching grant,” Theriot said. “We will be putting up the $25,000.”
Timing remains the biggest hurdle for the walking trail.
“We are waiting on the state to receive monies form the federal government,” Theriot explained. “It’s actually federal monies that are being used. The backbone of its is tied the federal highway bill. We are waiting for that to be fully approved. Once that happens, it will come from the federal government to the state. Then the state will divvy it out to the municipalities.”
Johnson said that collecting information and going through the bid process for the playground equipment took a good bit of patience.
“As the owner of a business,” Johnson said, “I can just buy anything I need at that time. That is not the case with government. This was a headache, but it was worth it because it will draw more people to the park.”
Theriot agreed that the playground and trail are improvements, indeed worth the wait because of what the citizens receive in the end.
“It will improve the utilization of the park,” Theriot said. “It will allow for more things to happen at the park.
“It’s all for the good of our citizens.”