Students, public will have a say on new playground

What do you want the new Wildcat Park to look like?

You’ll get a chance to weigh in on the design — but only after the kids have had their say.

A public meeting on the new park’s design will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the gymnasium at Wilson Elementary School, 2710 N.W. Satinwood St.

Dennis Will of Leathers & Associates, the firm that designed the original community playground and that has been hired to create its replacement, will present the company’s proposal. He will also answer questions and take comments from the audience.

Some of the most important input, however, will come from the younger set.

Throughout the morning, Will is scheduled to meet with classes of Wilson students to find out what they’re looking for in the new Wildcat Park.

“He has them draw things they want to see in the park, and then he tries to incorporate that into the design,” said Mark Hoffman, chairman of the Wildcat Park Steering Committee, a citizens group leading the drive to rebuild the community play structure.

Will also is scheduled to meet with teachers and committee members during the day. After presenting his initial drawings to the public that night, he’ll spend the next two weeks refining the design, which will then go back to the steering committee and officials from the school district and the city for approval.

“The design day really is set up to get a rough-draft idea of what the design will be,” Hoffman said.

A similar process was used to create the original Wildcat Park on the Wilson Elementary grounds 17 years ago. The school district unexpectedly shut it down in January after a consultant reported that the elaborate wooden play structure was deteriorating and might pose a safety hazard.

Repairing the sprawling collection of mazes, towers, tunnels and bridges was deemed too costly, and it was dismantled this fall. Some elements have been saved with the idea of incorporating them into the new structure.

It will cost an estimated $250,000 to design and build a replacement playground, Hoffman said.

The school district has set aside $100,000 left over from the 2002 facilities improvement bond toward the project. The 15-member Wildcat Park Steering Committee was formed to coordinate volunteers and raise money for construction and maintenance costs.

“We’re looking to raise $150,000, and we have most of that to go,” said committee member Lori Hendrick.

“It will be used for building materials unless we can get some things donated,” she said. “Also, we want to set up a fund for ongoing maintenance so we can prevent what happened last time.”

Lots of details still remain to be worked out, Hoffman said, from the total amount of donations that will be needed to the level of city involvement in maintaining the playground. Hundreds if not thousands of volunteers will need to be mobilized for the construction phase. The committee hopes to have the new playground built in late May or early June.

“Our goal is to have it happen before school’s out,” Hoffman said.

On the net

More information about Wildcat Park is available online at www.newwildcatpark.org.

Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.