The town has received a $100,000 a state grant to construct a handicap-accessible path around the perimeter of Lopes Field in Onset.

The money is a key piece of a larger project that includes replacing the aging playground equipment in the Lopes Field playground, using some of the town’s Community Preservation funds. The total $750,000 request will be put to voters at the October 28 Town Meeting. Now that request will be presented with the understanding that grant money will fund $100,000 of the cost.

According to Select Board Chair Judith Whiteside, the overall plan is to turn Lopes Playground into Lopes Park by replacing the current playground with a new, more accessible one and installing accessible pathways.

"Anyone with wheelchairs or walkers or mobility challenges would be able to walk around the perimeter of the park," Whiteside said.

The grant – Wareham’s first through the state’s Parkland Acquisitions and Renovation for Communities (PARC) program – is a reimbursement grant. As Whiteside explained: "We have to spend the money up front and then we show the state we've spent the money, what we've spent it on and then we get the money back."

Whiteside said the town is also looking to install birdhouses and other features to provide people with information about the local ecology as a part of the pathway project.

The larger piece of the project involves replacing the current wooden playground. The new playground will be accessible to all, which is not currently the case.

"The original playground was built in the early 1980s with about 1,500 people from the Town of Wareham contributing time, money and effort," said Whiteside. "The wooden structure has outlived its usefulness and when it was built some of the concerns that we've addressed today were not addressed."

The playground holds an important significance to the community, Whiteside said. “It's the gateway to the village of Onset. It is mostly used by younger families but that can include grandparents with young grandkids and that's why it's appropriate to enlarge it to a park, so it's available and attractive to everybody."

Whiteside added the gazebo will not be removed, and that the town is currently looking at offers from two different licensed playground installers for the new playground.

The Community Preservation funds proposed for the playground reconstruction are the result of Wareham’s participation in a state program that allows the town to collect a surtax on the value of real estate above $100,000 to be used for historic preservation, affordable housing, open space acquisition and recreation. If approved at the fall Town Meeting, funding the Lopes Field project would not affect property taxes.