REDMOND — Two weeks short of a deadline for a matching funds donation goal to build a new playground, the city of Redmond is slightly less than halfway there.

“We’re operating on the basis we’ll be fully successful,” said Heather Richards, community development director.

The Sam Johnson Park project is $49,000 short of its goal of raising $700,000 for an all-ages, all-access playground. Redmond Kiwanis has led the fundraising charge, just as it did more than 25 years ago for the original park construction.

In May, an anonymous benefactor agreed to give more than $112,500 to the project. More than $200,000 has been dedicated to it from the city, which includes funds for realignment of the bike path to make room for the larger play area.

After fundraising for nearly two years and completing a design process for the play area, which is five times larger than the existing one, the project found itself $250,000 short this spring — which is where the donor comes in.

Richards said that as far as she knows, the offer is not an all-or-nothing deal where the $112,500 is contingent on getting the matching funds.

“I know the donor is very interested in seeing the park be a success,” she said. To that end, the original June 1 deadline for the matching funds has been extended to July 1, she said. If the $250,000 goal has not been met by that time, the city will begin identifying items in the playground that are most expendable.

“We’ll analyze everything, looking for redundancies,” Richards said. “There are 72 play elements in the design, so we’ll look for things like, if there are 12 slides, we might go down to nine.” The city will wait until it knows for sure some elements will have to be eliminated, she added, because it wants to redesign the play structure just once.

Installation of the play structure has always been complicated by the annual Music on the Green concert series, which is held adjacent to the future playground site. With delays in reaching the fundraising goal, construction has been pushed to 2015, with a goal of opening by summer before the concert series resumes. Kiwanis International Clubs has taken a special interest in the park projects, as it celebrates its centennial in 2015.

— Reporter: 541-548-2186, lpugmire@bendbulletin.com