Redmond city councilors have approved the purchase of a $67,000 merry-go-round for Hope Playground and signed off on a $6,000 mosaic for the new City Hall, which is nearing completion and on schedule to open next year.

Both expenses were approved Dec. 20, the council’s last meeting of 2016.

The merry-go-round, which the city said costs as much as it does because it’s ADA compliant and was ordered from Germany, is a long-discussed component of Hope Playground, which opened last year and cost more than $1 million to build. It had always been included in the playground’s original plans, but the city delayed its purchase until enough money could be raised to cover the expense.

The merry-go-round purchase was largely funded by community donations, along with a $13,154 contribution from the city.

“Nobody in the U.S. makes this apparatus,” said Gary Ollerenshaw, a member of the Kiwanis Club, which played a central role in fundraising for the merry-go-round.

The club is putting up $53,871 for the purchase, which it raised with the help of an anonymous $25,000 donation, as well as donations from Redmond’s Opportunity Foundation and community members.

The merry-go-round will be a push-pull-style platform that spins with the help of a person, not a carnival-type ride with wooden horses. To provide better accessibility, the merry-go-round will be flush with the ground. A wheelchair user, for example, could roll right onto it.

“There’s a young lady on a wheelchair able to use this,” said Redmond Mayor George Endicott, observing a picture of the merry-go-round that was presented at the meeting. “If you remember when we were kids, a child in a wheelchair certainly couldn’t use a merry-go-round.”

The merry-go-round fits in with the overall theme of inclusiveness at Hope Playground, which the city said is the most accessible playground in the state.

The council’s other big purchase at last week’s meeting was a $6,000 glass mosaic the city’s public art commission will order from an artist in Oregon’s Columbia City. The money, which is coming out of the commission’s public art budget, pays for the mosaic, its installation and a 10-year warranty from the artist, Korey Dollar.

The art piece, which depicts three former mascots that represented Evergreen Elementary School over the past several decades, will be installed over a back-lit window and illuminated inside the new City Hall.

“It will depict past mascots of Evergreen — an eagle, a wolf and a golden panther,” said Jackie Abslag, project coordinator for Redmond’s community development department, noting that the mosaic will be installed in mid-February after the renovations on the city’s new headquarters are complete.

Jason Neff, a deputy director of central services for the city, said those renovations are on track to be finished by Feb. 10. The $12 million renovation project is under budget and nearing completion, he said.

“We’re getting close to the end of the project,” he said. “The budget is about 84 percent spent at this point. We feel very confident that we will beat our budget on this project.”

The Evergreen renovation project was originally approved by councilors last year to the tune of $11.7 million. But change orders and contract changes over the several months drove costs up, eating through the city’s contingency fund and raising the total price tag to a little more than $12 million — which the city hasn’t exceeded to date.

Neff said now that the project is moving into the final stages of construction, additional cost increases are becoming less likely. Starting next month, the building’s flooring and painting work will get wrapped up, he said, while furniture and signs will be installed in late January.

— Reporter: 541-617-7829,

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