City Council going big with new Central City/Bonner Park playground

The swingset at Central City Park has grown so rusted and squeaky that you can literally hear the kids playing from a block away.

Help is on the way, however, as the City Council recently voted to accept a proposal from Play South Playground Creators for all-new playground equipment and new surfacing...

Pictured directly above is a bootlegged Baldwin2k before-and-after presentation, using Google Earth and one of the artist renderings of the new playground. The new playground will have rubberized surfaces, as opposed to the current sand.

The plan is to have the new playground equipment installed and ready by the middle of April. City employees this weekend will begin demolishing and hauling off the existing equipment, which was first installed almost 30 years ago. Nobody around town will shed a tear or be sad to see the old equipment go. There are several unsecured rails, missing pieces to equipment, as well as plenty of rusted metal...

Play South's bid of $538,388.66 was the lowest out of the three companies that submitted proposals. The cost for the actual equipment came in at roughly $275,000 The pouring and installation of 10,000 square feet of rubber surfacing came in at another $165,000. Freight is around $7,000 and installation $88,000. The city government will use its own employees for demolition.

The money for the project is coming out of City Hall's general fund. The reason that it took this long to replace the old playground equipment is because City Manager Hank Griffeth applied for multiple grants in the last few years and explored other payment options. In the end, however, none of those other options came through, and the City Council ultimately voted to use money from the general fund.