Even though the fall season just began, the Lincolnwood Parks and Recreation Department is looking ahead to the next outdoor season after slating $100,000 for a new playground in one of the town’s 13 parks.
G.G. Rowell Park, 6555 Albion Avenue, is the ninth park in line for a new playground installation as part of the village’s playground replacement program. The initiative started in 2005 to replace the play equipment in all Lincolnwood parks by the year 2020.
So far, the village has spent between $90,000 and $100,000 for each of the eight playgrounds installed at Columbia, Kildare, Rossi, Goebelt, Kenneth, Springfield, Drake and O’Brien parks, according to Laura McCarty, parks and recreation department director, who said the entire replacement program is paid out of a capital improvement fund.
“In addition to the playground replacement program, the functionality and safety within our park system is monitored on an ongoing basis,” McCarty said. “The approach is essential to ensuring a long life span for the equipment within our system and safe play environments for our community.”
Working with the park board, parks and recreation staff gathered input on the possibilities for playground designs from Lincolnwood Day Camp kids and students in the “Club Kid” afterschool program.
Feedback also was gathered from about 65 people who attended a design-viewing event at the park on Sept. 22, according to McCarty.
All total, board members received input from about 130 people and decided in late September on a playground plan, submitted by one of the seven companies vying for the project.
The new playground at G.G. Rowell Park is expected to open in March, village officials said.
Popular playground features suggested by the community incorporated a variety of play elements, new and different equipment aside from traditional swings and slides, and color schemes that fit the neighborhood where the park is located.
Nestled in a quiet tree-lined block surrounded by spacious homes, G.G. Rowell Park — dedicated in the memory of longtime trustee George Glen Rowell in 1977 — offers a quiet place for families to relax outdoors or grab a quick basketball game on the half-size court, according to the parks and recreation department.
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The playground now is about 20 years old, the department has said.
Village board members now will decide during their Nov. 15 meeting whether to approve the Lincolnwood Park Board’s recommendation to hire La Grange-based outdoor recreation equipment company NuToys Leisure Products to design and construct a new play area in line with the feedback provided by the community.
During March, volunteers from a nonprofit organization called Kids Around the World, which donates used play equipment to impoverished countries, are scheduled to remove the old equipment before the installation begins at G.G. Rowell Park.
Lincolnwood previously donated old playgrounds removed from Drake and O’Brien Parks in 2013 and 2015 to the charity. Some of that equipment ended up in communities in Israel, Lebanon, and North Korea, according to the parks and recreation department.
Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.