New playground equipment installed

 Fountain Square Park has a new look with the installation of new playground equipment. 

About two dozen volunteers met early Tuesday morning downtown to help assemble the equipment in the southeast corner of the park. 

“We had a lot of great help here putting together the equipment,” Park and Tree Board President Bill Drey said. “We had a large group from Nishna Productions, as well as volunteers from Farm Credit Services, Johnson Controls, and several individuals as well.”

Scott Wilson with the Green Tree company provided equipment and manpower to run it and the new Hope for Life pastor, Scott Weber, brought water and donuts for the volunteers. 

The equipment was largely assembled in a few hours and the concrete was then poured. Drey said the only thing left  to complete the project was delivery of mulch … a lot of mulch. Drey said they will be using a wood mulch specifically designed for playgrounds and once installed, will measure about 12 inches deep. 

“Apparently, over time, once the mulch is compacted, it will be handicap accessible as a wheelchair will be over to go over the top of it,” Drey said. 

The mulch was delivered Thursday, a couple days early, and installed by a second round of volunteers

The playground equipment is located at the former site of the gazebo, which was moved a couple weeks ago to College Park. 

Drey said it was a fairly simple decision regarding where to move the gazebo. 

“We chose College Park largely because of its location,” he said. “We didn’t want to have to move the gazebo very far.”

The new playground equipment cost about $40,000 and was paid for with a $10,000 Montgomery County Foundation grant and a $50,000 grant from Iowa West. 

The remaining $20,000 will be used to construct a shelter house near the playground.

Drey said Fountain Square park’s original playground equipment will be removed sometime in the late summer or early fall to make room for the reorganization of the war memorials.