The Friendship Park Advisory Committee met July 18 at the Marion County Development Partnership to finalize plans for the construction of a state-of-the-art playground, which is scheduled to open in late October to early November.
In a “perfect world,” the plan was to finish the playground in early October in time for Heritage Fest, but that hope was doused with cold water by Treynor McAdams of Planet Recess, who is producing and installing the playground. He said that while the typical timeframe for the ordering, manufacturing and delivery of the playground equipment is six weeks during the summer, Planet Recess currently is at eight to nine weeks.
With perfect weather, the playground equipment can be installed in just a few weeks, but the stone base and rubber surface cannot be installed until the playground equipment is in. McAdams said it will likely take nine to 10 days to install the rubber surface. He added in a perfect world, with no hindrance from weather or any other unforeseen delays, the entire project will take two-and-a-half months to complete.
The committee has placed its order for all of the equipment since the meeting, making the hopeful open date Nov. 1.
Some of the elements of the park that will appeal to all are its handicap accessibility and the spaced out nature of the design that will allow parents to see their children at all times without their line of sight being blocked. The way the tower structure that feeds the slides is constructed will also allow parents to see their children at all times.
The park also includes a pair of games, which do not require a power hookup, and a zip line. One of the games is based on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) that was described as being very educational and tactile by McDonald. The other is an “electronic” game that has a gear that is wound up to generate power, and children have to touch colored lights in sequence. It can also be played with two people, and it has an electronic display scoreboard.
The City Park bathrooms are being cleaned, repaired and repainted this week. With security absolutely crucial for the park bathrooms as they have been vandalized a number of times, Mayor Justin McKenzie said cameras will be installed on the exterior of the building and they will be monitored live at dispatch.
“I know that’s been a big question, and I’ve seen it tagged in The Columbian-Progress’ post. ‘How are they going to take care of it? How are they going to do this and that?’ We’re going to do everything we can from the city’s angle to take care of the park and preserve the park to make it last as long as possible,” he explained.
Columbia Police Chief Michael Kelly said he recently visited the Real-Time Crime Center at the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and was blown away by the technology that is available.
“Project NOLA is a non-profit, and there were some really wealthy people who passed away and left them millions of dollars. They have funds that are available for projects like this,” Kelly said. “These cameras have AI built into them, so if someone walks by the camera, it will zoom in on them and their face. You don’t just get this blurry image of a small person. The camera really works to pick up a good image of this person. There’s even facial recognition.”
He added that if the city is able to acquire these particular cameras to be installed at the park, the AI can be coded to alert them of suspicious activity in real time.
“It wouldn’t be just sticking a camera on a pole and hoping we catch someone,” Kelly said. “We have some real options.”
The committee spent considerable time during the meeting finalizing colors for specific playground equipment, with the primary focus on switching all vertical metal bars from aqua to olive. There was also discussion about the large chair, which was originally designed to have a purple back, orange arm rests and seat and a yellow kick plate. The committee altered its approach to represent all of the schools in Marion County with a blue back, red arm rests, orange seat and yellow kick plate.
McKenzie thanked the committee members for donating their time to the project, particularly the ones who went above and beyond picking the color of each individual item in the park. He joked that he spent 30 minutes on the colors during a previous meeting and that was plenty enough for him.
A 3D video will be released this week from a drone’s point of view flying through the park, which will also be shared on The Columbian-Progress Facebook page.
