The City of Hobart celebrated the opening of a brand-new playground for the community on Monday, November 20. Residents gathered together for the ribbon cutting on the corner of Wisconsin and 10th Street.
Kelly Goodpaster, director of parks and recreation for the City of Hobart, has been working on this project for years. While there were some obstacles along the way, she’s grateful that they are finally able to unveil this exhilarating attraction for Hobart residents.
“We’ve always wanted to create a destination for a playground like this,” Goodpaster said. “For a while, the biggest hurdle was that we didn’t have the funding for it. After the pandemic, we were provided with funds from the state for different projects and this was one that we decided to use them on. It was almost like a pipe dream come true.”
Goodpaster notes that this landscape structure product garnered a lot of attention to detail from the City of Hobart. They spent a great deal of time looking at what strategies would work best in building this playground.
“We visited plenty of parks throughout the Region to gather ideas,” Goodpaster said. “We even went to look at some play structures in Minnesota, and that’s where this was produced. Being able to talk with designers and ensuring everything was compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) played a big part in our development and planning process.”
While the ribbon cutting honored the accessibility of this playground to families, the City of Hobart still has a few plans in store for this project.
“People are welcome to use the playground now,” Goodpaster said. “However, we have some fencing that we want to do when we come back during the spring. We’ll also have some sidewalks to lead into the park and some additional cleanup work.”
Hobart Mayor Brian Snedecor has been looking forward to this playground opening for a long time. He’s confident that this project will help people highlight their city as a strong community presence in Northwest Indiana.
“There have been a lot of communities around us that have implemented destination parks,” Snedecor said. “We’ve heard from the residents about wanting a place like this and strived to fulfill that mission. It shows a true investment in our children and young families, from longtime residents to new ones. Providing quality services for them is extremely important.”
Snedecor describes how the City of Hobart weighed a wide variety of unique ideas in the planning period. He believes that once the warmer weather makes a return, this playground will become a favorite for families with young children.
“One of the ideas that we had with the playground is putting it in a strong location,” Snedecor said. “It’s right between the pool and the skatepark, which we hope makes this spot very popular during the summertime. I think it’s something the community is going to enjoy for many years to come.”
With the City of Hobart incorporating these amenities on the corner of Wisconsin and 10th Street, Snedecor believes that there is potential to expand this area even more down the line.
As of now, the next step on the agenda is to put the finishing touches on this project. The City of Hobart can’t wait to see people embrace this new playground.
“I’m very happy that everything came to fruition and the children are able to play on it,” Goodpaster said. “It’s heartwarming to see all the kids excited to use the playground even on such a rainy day.”
For more information on the City of Hobart, you can visit its website.
