Kelly Park Playground To Be City’s LargestIt’s not completed yet, but the new playground equipment at Kelly Park is already a behemoth.
“It’s going to be bigger than anything else in the park system,” said Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department Maintenance Director Shaun Gardner.
The playground set will include slides, stairs, climbers and more advanced climbing features for older kids.
Gardner said when the parks department ordered the playground set from GameTime Playground Equipment, they wanted to provide something the older kids could enjoy, too. The result was a hybrid system of two different playground sets that can serve everyone.
Due to the wet spring, construction didn’t get started until the middle of July. After the equipment is completed, the wood fiber for the ground will still need shipped in and repairs to the sidewalk will need to be completed. Gardner estimated the playground equipment should be ready for the public’s enjoyment by the end of August.
The old playground structure will then be torn down. Eventually, Gardner said, swings will be added where the old equipment was.
The playground set isn’t the only new thing going in at Kelly Park, 130 Fawley St.
“It’s kind of a dream plan out here,” Gardner said. The parks department is following its five-year master plan for the park to build it up. “There will be a lot of things (out here). I think we will be able to make it happen.”
The tennis courts are being redone, and pickleball courts are being added. Grants from the K21 Health Foundation and the Dr. Dane and Mary Louise Miller Foundation helped make those a reality. Phend & Brown is the contractor for the project, with Custom Fencing providing the fencing and K & M Asphalt set to lay the asphalt down.
The sledding hill continues to be built up as dirt is made available. A parking lot will be added to the south side of the park for the hill. The first year the parking lot will likely be gravel, but eventually it will have asphalt once everything is set, Gardner said.
The city’s stormwater utility is working on revitalizing the pond at the park.
Kelly Park, one of 18 in the city’s park system, also offers picnic tables and a shelter.
