Fulton’s School Park undergoing major upgrades

Encouraged by our current Fulton City Council, which believes that the community deserves the improvements, Parks and Recreation Committee members Jackie Wilkin and Sue VanKampen are actively seeking updates to our parks.

A portion of tax revenues collected from video gaming goes to the Parks Fund and enables further development of its many parks. A new pavilion and heavy-duty picnic tables were recently added to School Park as well as infant swings and benches. However welcome those changes were, more needed to be done. Parents, expressing their concern that monitoring their children on the playground from the shelter was difficult, asked that the playground equipment be more centrally located. Additionally, safety concerns of equipment were reasons to update.

So it was that on one of those blustery April days the sound of diesel engines could be heard at the 10th Avenue Park. Demolition had begun, followed soon by bulldozers grading the site. Fences went up, a semi-trailer filled with potential fun was unloaded and the process of placing equipment began. Concrete footings were poured and rock was leveled, the surface readied for a poured rubber matting.

Patience was the key in the planning and renovation of the park. The city of Fulton’s Public Works Department and the City Council worked tirelessly to meet the goals of being handicap accessible throughout the park. More changes will be forthcoming with a ribbon cutting being planned for September.

• Kathy Kuebel of Fulton is a member of the Fulton School Park Ad Hoc Committee.