In a meeting that lasted about 10 minutes, the City Council unanimously voted to select one of three Lake Avenue Park playground designs at a special Monday, February 6, meeting in City Hall.
Mayor Joe Kilsheimer and three of the four city commissioners were there. City Commissioner Kyle Becker was absent.
The special meeting was held because the city had to submit a selected design by the Tuesday, February 7, deadline for KaBOOM!, Kilsheimer said. KaBOOM! is the national nonprofit that helps communities build playgrounds for children.
Of the three designs city neighborhood services coordinator Shakenya Jackson presented at the meeting, City Council voted unanimously on the committee-recommended Design A, which had a rock wall, a ripple bridge, a spin cup, a triple racer slide, a Playdozer and a tire swing.
“It offers the kids many different play opportunities,” Jackson said.
The city of Apopka has teamed up with KaBOOM! and other partners in building a playground at Lake Avenue Park, which had fallen into disrepair in recent years.
The three playground designs were unveiled on the city of Apopka’s Facebook page on Friday, February 3. The concept illustrations were inspired by the designs children drew at the January 24 Design Day meeting in the Fran Carlton Center.
All three plans have an area of 2,500 square feet with a perimeter of 200 feet, according to blueprints in the special meeting agenda package. As well, the designs target ages 2-12. Designs A and B have a user capacity of 49, but Design C has one of 59.
About 200 volunteers will help construct the playground in one day, Build Day on Saturday, April 8. Construction is expected to take about six hours.
Two prep days are scheduled on Thursday, April 6, and Friday, April 7, to ready the grounds for the project.
The Lake Avenue Park playground will be the 136th built by KaBOOM! and Foresters Financial.
Foresters Financial supports KaBOOM! in promoting active play at home, at school and in the community for children.
Apopka is one of four cities in North America selected to have a playground built this year by Foresters.
The city of Apopka was required to secure $8,500, which was approved during the January 4 City Council meeting. The playground is estimated to cost $90,000, according to city officials.
An extended version of this story appears on page 1A of the February 10 issue of The Apopka Chief.
