The Michigan City Parks and Recreation Board on Wednesday approved a special purchase to order custom playground equipment for the Fetters Alley project before the entire construction package is fully funded.

Staff said the full project remains about $1.44 million short of construction funding but recommended ordering the long‑lead, custom equipment now because vendors offered warehouse storage at no charge and government pricing discounts. “There is a very long lead time on the custom equipment that we wanna order, and the city really wants us to spend out our ARPA funding. ... We can purchase. They will start manufacturing our specialty equipment,” the staff presenter said.

Staff reported two procurement benefits: (1) a government‑pricing discount of $9,200 from one vendor and (2) a larger bulk saving of about $53,240 when ordering all equipment together. Staff said Indiana special‑purchase rules allow the city to make the purchase now because the combined buy reduces cost to the governmental body and one vendor qualifies as single‑source for custom equipment.

Board members acknowledged the atypical sequencing—ordering equipment before awarding a construction contract—but approved the request to mitigate supply‑chain and tariff‑related delays. Staff said vendors will store the equipment at no additional cost and that, if construction funding cannot be assembled in time, staff could remove the restroom building from the construction package and seek separate funding as a contingency.

The motion carried with no recorded opposition. Staff will place the order, track lead times, and return to the board as construction funding and scheduling are finalized.