S.20.3-20: GARRISON Act (Law'd)

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

This bill is meant to help provide funding to local communities to build accessible recreational areas. I was inspired by the story of this little boy, Garrison Murph, who had Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). It's an extremely debilitating disease and he was wheelchair-bound for most of his life.

His story is inspiring, and he's the namesake of an accessible playground in Hartsville.

I don't think there's anything that could reasonably be objected to here other than some small specifics such as the grant amount or the amount of funding, though I will vote against any attempt to cut the amount given in the bill right now for the annual budget. With the amount of funding here, we could see, at minimum, 150 accessible recreational areas made around the South each year. That would be life-changing to so many disabled children in our region.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

To be clear: is the objective moreso to make current recreational areas handicapped accessible, or to create entirely new recreational areas that are?

It was written with the intention of the latter, though I’m not against the idea of allowing funds to be used for both.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I just realized I never defined "locality" so here's an amendment.

AN ACT
To fund the creation of accessible playgrounds and other recreational areas.

Section 1: Naming and Definitions.

I. The name of this act shall be: Getting Parks, Playgrounds, and Other Receational Areas Accessible for our Children (GARRISON) Act.
II. "Locality" is defined as an incorporated city or town, or the unincorporated areas of a county.


Section 2: Accessible Recreational Area Fund

I. An "Accessible Recreational Area Fund" (ARAF) shall be established.
II. The ARAF shall be charged to provide grants totaling no more than $100,000 to localities in order to create accessible recreational areas within the locality.
III. The ARAF shall be provided with an annual budget of $15,000,000 in order to provide these grants. Money shall be appropriated from regional reserves.
IV. This bill will go into effect immediately upon signature by the governor.

hopefully that clears up any questions with that.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I like this bill.

I'm currently in the process of finding information on this, but does anyone know exactly how much an accessible playground would cost to build? 100,000$ per playground seems like low.

EDIT: For example, this is a funding request for the renovation of an existing playground (I think; I've only skimmed it), and it's over a million dollars.

I was not 100% sure on the amount myself, and I'd be fine with expanding that amount if the annual budget is also increased.

Garrison's Place in Hartsville says it was possible through a $25k grant, which is why I made the amount $100k.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

No objections.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Aye!