New playground equipment approved for Argonne Park

By Kevin Boneske

Staff Writer

ASHWAUBENON – The purchase of new playground equipment for Argonne Park was approved Tuesday, June 25, by the village board.

The board approved the design from Northland Recreation (Little Tykes), one of six companies solicited by village staff to submit a potential design for a new playground.

“We kind of went back and forth with these companies, working on designs that would fit the park, fit the neighborhood, and that we thought would be a good fit overall for the village,” said Parks, Recreation and Forestry Supervisor David Roehrig.

Roehrig said residents in the Argonne Park area were sent letters seeking their opinions on the playground design with the design from Northland Recreation receiving the most votes from those responding.

“It actually has a couple different components to it,” he said. “There’s going to be the main playing structure with the slides and some climbing features, as well as the monkey bar area. But there is also kind of a standalone – it’s almost like a spider web rope design.”

Roehrig said $47,000 has been budgeted for the project, which will be installed by the parks’ maintenance department.

“This structure would be $37,000, and then there’s another $10,000 budgeted for the concrete, new wood chips, the new swing set and then the spring animal as well,” he said.

Trustee Chris Zirbel thanked the board for placing the money for new playground equipment at Argonne Park back into the budget after those funds had been cut.

“It’s much needed and, like somebody just said before that, (Argonne Park is) heavily used and especially now in the summer with the soccer fields on there now,” Zirbel said. “Sometimes that parking lot is full of cars… I drive by there and there’s cars in the street, and there’s just multiple families…  The neighborhood will appreciate that.”