The city’s third busiest park, aside from Garvin and Wesselman, will soon get a full makeover and a new place to call home.
Mayor Lloyd Winnecke announced the future site for the “bigger, more expanded” Kids Kingdom during a news conference Wednesday morning. The site is on the grounds of the Evansville Museum on Riverside Drive, south of the museum parking lot near the Evansville Museum Transportation Center.
The current Kids Kingdom, a popular playground at Sunrise Park, will be demolished for federally mandated sewer projects. Annually, Kids Kingdom serves about 100,000 visitors.
Construction on the new facility is expected to begin fall 2018, and the existing playground will remain until the new structure is complete,Winnecke said. “The impact of this new playground will serve the community for years to come,” he said.
The design and cost were not disclosed Wednesday, but Winnecke said the new playground will be privately funded. For Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin, Kids Kingdom is “like his fourth child.” Bolin called the original project selfish because he and fellow Evansville Police Officer Paul Kirby wanted a place for their kids to play. Kids Kingdom was built in 2002 as a community project led by Bolin and Kirby. More than 1,300 volunteers built the wooden playground in six days. Bolin and Kirby led fundraising efforts for more than $130,000 in private and corporate sponsors, as well as donations. Bolin said the total project cost more than $300,000.
Parks Department Executive Director Brian Holtz said it’s the only wooden structure around, and it needs to be replaced. The new structure will be made with Trex, a recycled material.
“We’re going to build a Kids Kingdom that will blow the current one out of the water,” Bolin said.
The new structure will be designed by Leathers & Associates out of New York.
Bolin wants to see two things in the new design: a castle and a tire swing.
“The name of it is going to stay the same, Kids Kingdom, so I think we have to have some type of castle structure,” he said. “And No. 2 is something that was added at the end of the first one that I didn’t think was that big of a deal, the tire swing. Any time you drive by, there are people on the tire swing. So I’m going to push that we have multiple tire swings.”
Preliminary plans also include new restrooms and a memorial brick display, which will include bricks from the current playground.The public will have an opportunity to purchase additional bricks for the new location.
Next Wednesday and Thursday, officials will host Design Days to get input from six local elementary schools: Lincoln, Tekoppel, Caze, Highland, Evansville Lutheran and Holy Rosary Catholic schools.
The public can also share ideas through the Community Survey for Playground Design Input at evansville.in.gov. A hard copy survey is available at the Mayor’s Office and Department of Parks and Recreation. The survey is due 5 p.m. next Tuesday.
Officials said ideas will be incorporated into a conceptual drawing, which will be unveiled to the public at 5:30 p.m. next Thursday at Vectren.
The city is forced to tear down and rebuild Kids Kingdom, located on Waterworks Road near Veterans Memorial Parkway, for a radical transformation to bring the city’s sewer system into compliance with Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
The pump must be at Sunrise Park, according to officials, which isn’t far from the city’s treatment plant on Waterworks Road. The pump project is to cost $20-$25 million and will go out for bid in 2018. Work is expected to start in 2019.