The Dahlia Playground at Althaus Park now has funding commitments from a nonprofit, a playground manufacturer, Hamilton County and the Town of Signal Mountain. What it lacks is a signed agreement. That agreement depends on a question nobody has answered yet: how long a town can promise to keep a playground inclusive. The current council would like to settle it before November 7. On that date, newly elected members take four of its seats.
The idea started with one child. Dahlia "Dollie" Harmon has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. Local 3 News reported that the project began after she told her parents, Emily and Adam Harmon, that she could not fully join her friends at recess. Over the past two years, that conversation grew into a public-private project that Chattanoogan.com now calls a million-dollar playground.
The Money Is Already Committed
Fundraising was the hard part for most of the past two years, and that part is largely done. As of late September 2026, the funding looks like this:
| Source | Amount | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Hope Included, the Harmon family and PlayCore | $500,000 raised | Playground installation |
| Hamilton County | $210,516.07 | Inclusive play equipment donated to the town, approved Aug. 5, 2026 |
| Hamilton County "Leaning into Communities" grant | $250,000 | Park and community improvements |
| Town of Signal Mountain general fund | $250,000 | Match for the county grant |
According to Chattanoogan.com, Nicolle McCoy said she and her husband founded Hope Included in memory of their daughter, Hope McCoy, who died in 2019. Its first project was the playground at Riverview Park, and the organization partnered with the Harmons soon after it was finished.
The town's share pays for more than the play equipment. On September 21, the council packet included a proposed $71,190 design and engineering contract with Pape-Dawson for Althaus Park. The firm's Phase 1 scope includes a new large play area, landscaping, more parking and pedestrian sidewalks. It also renovates the restrooms to add two ADA family restrooms, one of them with an adult changing table. Chattanoogan.com reported that the landscaping will use native plants to meet the town's landscaping ordinance, and that the new sidewalk will connect the playground to the park's existing facilities.
The adult changing table shows who the design is meant to serve. Hope Included describes a space for all ages and abilities, including older residents who want a walking path or a shaded bench while they watch their grandchildren play. Its concept deck calls for sensory features, social play areas and quiet areas. That deck is an early proposal, not a final equipment list.
The Agreement Splits the Work
The draft Memorandum of Agreement, Resolution 2026-43, divides the work between the town and Hope Included. In order:
- The town makes the playground site at Althaus Park available.
- The town hires a qualified engineer to prepare an initial grading plan.
- Signal Mountain Public Works removes the existing playground equipment and does the initial grading.
- Hope Included contracts with the playground vendor and pays for installation costs that the county's equipment purchase or separate town funding do not cover.
- Once the playground is finished, inspected and accepted, the town operates and maintains it as part of Althaus Park under its normal budgeting and purchasing procedures.
Steps one through four have a start and a finish. Step five is open-ended. Any time a town accepts a donated facility, it takes on years of upkeep along with it. That open-ended step is where the September 28 discussion focused.
Twenty-Seven Minutes on September 28
The council's regular meeting on Monday, September 28, listed "Dahlia Playground - MOA with Hope Included" as a discussion item. On the town's meeting video index, the item runs from about the ten-minute mark to the 37-minute mark, longer than anything else on the agenda. The salt spreaders, snowplows and pool-deck repairs took a few minutes each.
Gail Perry reported for Chattanoogan.com that the dispute was over duration. The council does not want MOA wording that would hold the town to the playground's original conditions "in perpetuity." Members discussed how to define a "reasonable, useful life" for the playground and who would decide when it had run out. They preferred language saying the town would make "a good faith effort" to maintain it as an inclusive space. Perry also reported that future councils might want options such as moving the playground or using different equipment.
The same meeting gave a small example of what long-term maintenance involves. Crews replacing floorboards on the municipal pool deck, which is closed for the season, found that the original builders never installed joist hangers. The building code requires them for structural support. The council approved $1,400 to add them. Council members also noted that the pool, after close to $1 million in investment over the past several years, earned around $40,000 this season. A playground built for children of every ability will face the same kind of upkeep decades from now. The disagreement is over how much of that future the current council can commit to.
Town Attorney Harry Cash is taking revised wording to Hope Included and is hopeful the organization will accept it.
Why the Election Date Matters
Perry's report states the deadline directly. The council will change after the upcoming election, and members want an agreement before then. If they don't reach one, the decision passes to the new council.
Four Town Council seats are on the November 3, 2026 ballot, according to the Hamilton County Election Commission. One of them is the unexpired term Eddie Smith won in 2024. Smith resigned, and the council appointed Charlie Poss to the seat. Eleven candidates qualified: J. Miles Jorgensen, Clay Crumbliss, Jami Wolbers, Rufus Marye, Andrew Coyle, Austin Scofield, Alexander Malone, Laura Malone, Chris Gailmard, Scott Gossett and John P. Foreman. Under the town charter, new members take office at 10 a.m. on the first Saturday after the election. This year that is November 7.
As a result, the playground's timeline now depends on the election calendar. Hamilton County's July 17 release projected construction "later this year." That projection came before the wording dispute, and no revised start date has been published. Dates for the MOA vote are also unclear. The September 23 Chattanoogan.com report said the council would vote on October 28. The town's September 28 agenda packet lists the next council meeting as Monday, October 12. Neither date has been confirmed as the date of a vote.
What Happens to the Current Althaus Equipment
Before the town can grade the site, Public Works has to remove the current Althaus Park playground. Hope Included's project materials say that equipment will be reused to update the playground at Timberlinks Park, 600 Timberlinks Drive. Chattanoogan.com reported the same plan in April 2025. In 2018, the Signal Mountain Mirror reported that the town had authorized new equipment for the Timberlinks playground after removing the old equipment over age and safety concerns. No move to Timberlinks has been confirmed yet. Because removal comes after a signed agreement, that playground's update is waiting on the same agreement.
Until construction begins, the rest of Althaus Park at 809 James Boulevard stays as it is: pavilions, pickleball courts, softball fields, and the playground and tennis courts near the pavilions.
Dates to Watch This Month
- October 4: Town Council Candidates Forum at the Mountain Arts Community Center. The listing gives no start time.
- October 12: Next scheduled Town Council meeting, per the September 28 agenda packet.
- October 14 through 29: Early voting, per the Hamilton County Election Commission. The town's own page lists a different start date, so the county schedule is the one to follow.
- November 3: General election, with four Signal Mountain council seats on the ballot.
- November 7: New council members take office.
In July, Emily Harmon said in the county's release that the county's investment "brings us one step closer to creating a place where children of all abilities can play together, feel included, and know they belong." Since then, the county has approved the equipment and the fundraising has reached $500,000. The remaining step is agreeing on wording about the playground's useful life, and the current council has about five weeks left to do it.
Projects like the Dahlia Playground are part of everyday life on Signal Mountain, and they are the kind of local news The Robinson Team follows closely in our community. If you have questions about Althaus Park, Timberlinks or what is changing on the mountain, we are glad to talk.
