Williams Park Playground Surface to be Replaced

The Williams Park playground surface is getting an upgrade. 

University Park officials said crews were set to begin work on replacing the rubberized surface Wednesday and the playground’s expected to reopen Dec. 27, weather permitting. The benches adjacent to the playground and the playground itself will be closed for the duration of the work, but the rest of the park will remain open. Tennis players and instructors are asked to use the entrance on the north side of the courts, rather than the west gate, during the construction. 

The University Park city council approved a $105,566.45 contract with Robertson Recreational Services for the playground resurfacing project Dec. 7

“We’ve had to do a number of patch jobs in Williams Park just due to – again, in 2014 it was completely replaced and it’s starting to show its age,” Parks Director Sean Johnson said. “It’s definitely time for a complete replacement.”

Johnson said patchwork was done in 2019 and 2020, and the playground is among the most highly-used playgrounds in the city. 

Beginning with Williams Park, one playground per year is slated to undergo these same upgrades as part of the city’s capital projects schedule.  

In other news:

• The city council approved designating a queue lane and removing the no-parking designation in the 4100 block of Colgate Avenue, near Christ the King. Specifically, the north curb line would be designated as a queue lane only from 7 a.m. to 7:50 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., consistent with other schools. The change will be re-evaluated after 60 days.
• The city council approved a contract to replace three on-premise servers from Itron with Itron Cloud Services. Itron facilitates the automated collection of water consumption information from residential and commercial customers. City officials say a cost analysis determined Itron Cloud Services would result in a cost savings of $58,336 over a 10-year period. Funding for the first year of this project in the amount of $125,100 would come from the existing capital project for the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system. The subscription cost for years two through five in the amount of $105,723 would be funded out of the Technology Services Fund.