About this time last year, my staff and I were planning an act of destruction. We were planning the removal of the Eden Prairie School’s Family Center playground. The playground was in the middle of the parking lot outside the Family Center which is located in City Center.
The reason we were planning to remove the playground was to allow us to make more parking spaces for another tenant of City Center: C.H. Robinson Worldwide. We had just signed a new lease to keep C.H. Robinson in our building as a rent-paying tenant. They had other opportunities and they negotiated a good deal for themselves; one that included more parking spaces outside their offices.
Our plan from the start, however, was not to take the playground away from the children permanently. We planned all along to replace the playground and to make it better than it was before.
This week we dedicated the new playground space. And it is better than it was before. Here are some photos from the dedication.
(L to R: Parks Manager Stu Fox, Director of Parks & Recreation Bob Lambert, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Melissa Krull, and me)
Kids having a good time on the old playground equipment in the new playground.
Parks Manager Stu Fax is the guy who deserves the most credit for making this project work. It was a tricky project and Stu stayed with it to the end. He did great work in guiding this project from start to finish.
There are many people that deserve this “Thanks a Bunch” sign. The employees of our Street Maintenance and Park Maintenance Divisions did all the work to take the previous playground apart; store it for almost a year; then put it back together again. The School District staff was patient and trusting with us. C.H. Robinson had to sign off on the playground, and they did, so I thank them for that.
Thanks a bunch to all of them. Now let the children play.
