New playground opens in River Heights
Outdoor facility has features for toddlers, preteens
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This article was published 10/11/2014 (4199 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A new playground at Corydon Community Centre is ready to launch.
The recently completed “comet” and “rocket ship” themed park was officially opened on Nov. 4 with approval from the City of Winnipeg.
“They said go ahead it’s safe, use it,” Abbie Bajon, operations manager at Corydon Community Centre, said.
“There was a lot of kids on it over the weekend,” Bajon added. “The reason it hadn’t been open was there’s supposed to be one more layer of half-inch rubber on top of it, but they don’t need it to be safe.”
The area surrounding the structure is a rubber composite rather than play sand or stones. The rubber has bounce to it and, according to Bajon, also has decent flex in case of falls.
One last coating of blue rubber will be applied to the surface of the playground in the springtime, weather permitting.
Bajon said there are a number of “neat aspects” to the park, including enhanced accessibility for children with mobility challenges.
“There’s an area for younger kids and there’s also an area for older kids. So it combines all ages instead of just a two- to five-year-old playground. It’s a two- to 12-year-old playground,” she said.
A rubber path surrounds the play structure, allowing children in wheelchairs or with scooters to access the playground and utilize it. There are also stop signs and a ‘gas station’ children can use to refill their favourite mode of transport.
“So far everybody loves it,” Bajon said. “We’ll probably start to get feedback over the next couple of weeks.”
Construction on the playground began in September after the adjacent splash pad closed for the season. The structure is vibrant blue and reflects the space theme of the centre’s mascot, the Comets.
“We got some money from the city to upgrade, so we looked at upgrading it,” Bajon said.
“There used to be a fence between the splash pad and the playground and they’ve taken that away so now it’s a larger area.”
The previous structure was between eight and 10 years old and according to Coun. John Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry) it had aged to the point that it needed to be replaced.
“It was an old wooden structure one. It was one of the last older ones that we had to do,” Orlikow said.
“The River Heights site was very tired and disconnected from the water park. We wanted to the two to work together.”
The new playground is the latest in a number of park improvements in the ward, Orlikow said.
“It was just their turn,” Orlikow said. “Across the ward there’s been about 20 (playground) updates.”
In addition to the play structure, the tennis courts were also completely refinished.
A spokeswoman for the City of Winnipeg said $400,000 in funding for the structure and tennis courts came from the Building Communities Initiative II Phase Two grant.
Orlikow said the completion of the play structure at River Heights concludes the playground upgrades in the ward.
“There aren’t any more on our radar,” he said, adding that they are working on enhancing other greenspaces now.
According to the city, the previous structure was removed and slated for re-use in another park.