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CORTLAND -- Beginning this summer, the basketball court at Pearl Park will be converted into a Safety City to be used by children to play and learn.
Safety City will be a mini city, complete with painted roads and eight small buildings. The buildings were built by students from the Trumbull Career and Technical Center and will be branded for local businesses and organizations.
David Christner, chair of the Cortland Parks Board, said children can come to Safety City to learn how to ride their bike and pay attention to street signals. Children also can attend programs with safety forces, such as police and fire, and the schools. He noted that the programming has not yet been developed, but they are working with some ideas.
He said he is looking for someone from Lakeview Local Schools to coordinate the programs in the future. Some ideas include holding kindergarten orientation at Safety City, where the students could learn how to get on and off the bus and cross the street safely. Other programming could include fire safety with the fire department, and programming with the police department could include teaching students what to do if they find a gun or if someone they are with is having a medical emergency.
"These are things it is important for kids to learn these days," Christner said. "I also think that they would be more engaged in an outdoor classroom like this, than they might be in other environments."
Part of the project will include building an outdoor pavilion right off the blacktop that can be used for the programming. Christner also said the basketball court will remain at Pearl Park, but it will be moved.
Solon is the closest city with a Safety City, the organizers said.
Christner said Cortland police Chief David Morris brought the idea to attention in Cortland. He saw a safety city while traveling with his family, and thought it would be a great addition.
The Cortland Community Foundation has been spearheading the program, although Christner, who also is executive director of CCF, said the Cortland Park Department will take over maintenance once the project is completed. The CCF is raising the funds and will contract with companies to complete the project.
The foundation also raised money for the splash pad at Pearl Park, which is maintained by the park department.
Jeffrey Jiang, a volunteer with the foundation, said the CCF also is raising money for Americans with Disabilities Act compliant swings at the park. He said very few communities have these, so it will be a good addition that will bring people into Cortland.
Jiang said the swing set and Safety City initially were separate projects, but it will be less expensive to hire one company to do work on both. The entire project will cost $70,000. Safety City alone will cost about $54,000.
To date, the foundation has raised $42,900 for Safety City and is waiting to hear from the Trumbull County commissioners about a request for American Rescue Plan money that would help to cover the cost of the swing set.
Christner said the foundation is hoping to get the blacktop repair and painting started in July and is hoping the entire project will be completed with programming started by spring 2024. He noted there may be test runs for programming in August.
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The small buildings were constructed by a construction technology class at TCTC taught by Josh Peachey.
Cara DeToro, academic supervisor at TCTC, said the project has been going on for a few years. She also serves on the Cortland Park Board and said when she saw the small buildings, she thought they would be perfect for Safety City.
"It really helped to kick things off. We had some buildings, then Safety City really started to come together," she said.
DeToro said it also will help the students at TCTC because they could have the opportunity to gain work-based learning hours. While building the sheds likely will not count as hours because it was a project before Safety City, any future help or repairs the students provide could.
She said the class has been very helpful and great to work with.
"Any time they can have real world experience is great," DeToro said.
Some of the buildings will be branded for different local businesses and organizations. Lou Wollam Chevrolet, Akron Children's Hospital Mahoning Valley, Mark Thomas Ford, the Cortland Police Department and the Cortland Fire Department all will have buildings. Jiang said there will be a total of eight buildings in Safety City.
The CCF got donations from 15 entities. Lou Wollam Chevrolet donated $15,000, and Akron Children's Hospital and Mark Thomas Ford, each of which donated $5,000, are among the top donors.
NEO Junk Removal and Seven-Seventeen Credit Union donated about $5,000 each, and Walmart gave $2,000. Ten donors gave at least $1,000 to the project, such as Masonic Lodge 529, Four Seasons Garden Club, Mosquito Lake Dent Repair LLC and the Lions Club.