They say it takes a village to raise a child.

For the leaders with the City of Dowagiac, they want the village’s help in building a place for a child to play as well.

The Dowagiac City Council approved plans to move ahead with plans to construct a new community-built playground in Russom Park. During their meeting Monday, the seven-person council unanimously approved bids from two vendors who will help with the project, which is slated to begin later this year.

“We’re pretty excited about this project,” said City Manager Kevin Anderson. “This is a community-build project. Although we have bid prices here, this is for materials and for people from the companies to come and make sure we build it correctly.”

The two vendors the city awarded contracts to were Lounsbury Excavating out of Paw Paw, for $10,900, and Miracle Play Equipment out of Okemos, for $15,485. The former firm will provide materials for the cement work required for the construction, while the latter will provide the playground equipment.

The bidding process was slightly delayed due to an initial lack of bids when the request for proposal for the project was sent last fall, with only two vendors providing bids, Anderson said. The state Department of Natural Resources, who is providing grant money for the project, required at least three bids for the project, although the city again only received two bids for the cement work this year.

“The state is allowing us to go forward, because we did our due diligence,” Anderson said.

As the name “community build” implies, the actual construction of the playground will be handled by volunteers from the local area, who will assemble the equipment along with the help contractors from the two vendors.

“We are getting some good positive feedback towards [the project],” Anderson said.

The city is still in the process of firming up dates for construction to begin on the playground, Anderson said.

The council also approved a contract with Simmons Tree & Lawn, a grounds keeping company out of Niles, to handle the city’s lawn maintenance needs over  the next 12 months. The city will pay the company $79,380 for the service this year.

“They have some contracts Niles, and it appears that they are qualified,” Anderson said.

Simmons beat out two other companies who provided bids for the mowing work, including the firm the city contracted last year, MTL.

The council also authorized payment of outstanding bills and payroll in the amount of $315,744.68.