NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council on Tuesday approved the purchase of new playground equipment for Rice Park.
"One thing we did this time when we were selecting this playground equipment was we engaged some students at Wiley Elementary School," said Director of Parks and Facilities Justin Combs. "We went there twice. On our first trip to Wiley, I spent several minutes talking to them about playground equipment, about things like spinning and sliding and rocking and why it's important from a physiological standpoint, why it's important from a social standpoint, so really just educating them that playgrounds are more than just something fun to go play on. Then we took them on a tour. We went and played on playgrounds. We went to Rice Park. We had them play for 15 minutes and then we asked them a series of questions, had them write down their responses. Then we went to Carey Park, to one of our newer playgrounds in Carey Park, and did the same thing."
The kids then came back to the school and the staff had them draw pictures of their ideal playground.
"We took that feedback then and we engaged three vendors and took that feedback and said, these are the things the kids are looking for," Combs said. "Then we developed three concepts from that, so then we came back. After we got all those concepts back from the vendors, we came back to the kids with those three concepts. We reviewed benefits of play and playground equipment, and then we discussed the three options and actually had them vote."
Two of the concepts tied in the vote, but one of them had made a mistake in their bid that would have made it too expensive, so the recommendation came to the council for equipment from All-Inclusive Rec.
"This is a little bit of a unique color scheme for us," Combs said. "This was a color scheme they picked out. They loved purple. Purple was the one color they wanted. They wanted bright colors and purple. So we did plum and lime green."
The equipment will cost $139,194.20. It was approved unanimously.
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