Okoboji elementary playground receives new mulch

PHOTOS SUBMITTED: Okoboji elementary playground volunteers recently laid a new foundation of oak mulch. The entire project took just over a week and half and was wrapped up right around Christmas. A few students form Okoboji High School helped out by raking the mulch under the equipment.

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The soft landing spot was becoming a question at the Okoboji Elementary playground. The mulch underneath playground equipment had reached a point where it had completely worn down and decomposed. School officials felt the surface was no longer safe for children to play on.

"The whole playground had gotten to the point of deterioration," said Okoboji School District Superintendent Gary Janssen. "Mulch has a life of around 10 to 12 years, and it had reached that. It needed to be completely replaced."

Janssen looked into two different types of mulch and decided on an oak surface.

"It is much easier to dispose of," Janssen said. "If we were to get the rubber mulch there is no known way to get rid of it. With the old mulch, we were able to dispose of it in the landfill, it was light and not hard to transport."

Rubber mulch is much more expensive, can potentially leave black marks on children's clothing and sometimes wires are even present, resulting in an unsafe environment for kids. In addition, there have even been reports of vandalism in larger cities where older kids would light the rubber mulch on fire at night.

The cost for the oak mulch was $22,000 but no fundraising was needed. The school district was able to dip into the new elementary building addition funds.

It took three-days just to remove the old, decomposed mulch. Janssen hired three local contractors for the project, one handled the removal while two others were in charge of laying the new mulch.

The Okoboji Superintendent appreciated a streak of nice weather as well. The project was completed right around Christmas. The soil underneath the old mulch was frozen so the hired contractor as able to use a back hoe and scoop the material up of the ground without having to worry about digging large holes in the ground.

Once all the old and worn down material was removed, a seven day process of laying the new oak mulch was put into motion.

Seven semi-loads of mulch were delivered to the playground -- one semi a day for a week. The mulch was dumped into the parking lot and skid loaders were then used to spread the mulch throughout the playground. It took about about a half day's worth of work for each truck load to get it distributed evenly.

Mr. Martin's Okoboji High School welding class even helped out with the mulch process in December. Seven students helped rake the nearly 6,000 cubic yards of mulch under the playground equipment for three separate mornings.

Since it's completion, a number of children have enjoyed playing on the newly improved playground.

"It is much safer and much cleaner now," Janssen said.

And while the equipment is for Okoboji Elementary students to use while at recess, Janssen urges kids from throughout the area to utilize the great playground on the weekends or after school.

"The equipment is in great shape, and now we have new mulch," he said. "I encourage everyone to go out and use it."