Officials to relocate playground equipment

State and city officials agreed on a plan to restore and relocate the playground equipment from the Five Mile Park to the Tucumcari Historical Museum.

“It is good to see proactive involvement from a community to save a historical location such as Five Mile Park,” said Pilar M. Cannizzaro, architectural project reviewer for the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division.

Pilar met on Friday with Tucumcari City Manager Bobbye Rose, Community Development Director Doug Powers and Fire Chief Mike Cherry at City Hall.

“Pilar was taken on a tour of  Five Mile Park,” said Rose. “We felt actually touring the site might give the Historical Preservation Division new insight in to the situation.”

Pilar said the tour enabled her to see the disrepair of the park facilities and equipment.

“The location of the park and the lack of maintenance of the playground equipment is a major concern,” Pilar said. “Moving and restoring equipment is a great idea.”
Rose said Donald Falls, a Tucumcari resident, presented  the idea to move the equipment to the City Commission.

“My wife and I went out to the park after the fire,” Falls said. “As we looked around my wife began to tell me about some childhood memories she had on the playground equipment.”

Falls said he approached the Tucumcari Historical Museum board with a proposal to move the equipment to the museum. He said he later approached the city commission.

“The plan is to restore the equipment and place it at the museum,” Falls said. “There will be a mural painted at the park and museum depicting Five Mile Park in its hey-day.”

Pilar said city officials brought the destruction of the bathhouse to her attention.

“The bathhouse was destroyed in a fire which occurred on June 12,” said Cherry. “The portion of the building that was remaining was torn down for public safety.”

Pilar said the park, bathhouse, swimming pool and original park entrance were all Works Progress Administration projects. She said the Historical Preservation Division will be looking into partnering with the WPA Association to possibly restore the park.

“Another avenue we are exploring is having the park placed on the New Mexico Historical Preservation Alliance's 11 most endangered sites list,” Pilar said.

Pilar said sites placed on this list have received special attention from the legislature and have been spotlighted for state grants.

“We want to see this become a community project,” Pilar said. “This site in Tucumcari has a lot of historical significance to their residents.”

Rose said historically the park is important to the residents of Tucumcari. She said currently the cost to completely revive the park is too much for the city to consider.

“We will continue to work with the Historical Preservation Division to seek funding to restore the park,” Rose said.