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New wet playground at Wick Recreation Area to be complete in May
YOUNGSTOWN
In several weeks’ time, visitors to Mill Creek Park’s Wick Recreation Area will have a new feature to enjoy.
Work is underway on a new wet playground area, bringing back a feature the recreation area used to offer.
The wet playground will be the fourth and final component of a revamped children’s play area developed several years ago. The new playground will be a “zero-depth water play environment,” according to information provided by the MetroParks.
It will include bubblers, sprays, cannons and dumping buckets.
That project, the contract for which was awarded at a cost of $80,079.50 to Daniel A. Terreri & Sons, is expected to be complete before Memorial Day, Mill Creek MetroParks Planning Manager Justin Rogers said.
Another spring project is expected to start soon. Penn-Ohio Sealing Co., which was awarded the $99,567 contract, will start work on improvements to Volney Rogers Field’s tennis and basketball courts.
The project includes cleaning, crack-filling, adding a new layer of asphalt and application of an acrylic playing surface. Also, the project will add pickleball courts to the area and a new asphalt trail to connect the basketball courts with a trail.
Park planners expect that work to be done in mid-June.
Also moving along is a project to replace Lanterman’s Mill’s water wheel, which powers the functioning gristmill. The MetroParks board recently awarded a contract for $182,500 to B.E. Hassett-Millwrights Inc. for replacement of the wheel. Of the $182,500 project cost, 49 percent is being covered by proceeds from the Recipes of Youngstown cookbook and money from an endowment fund for the mill.
“Over the course of the summer and the fall, they’ll be doing off-site work. They’ll be constructing the wheel. They’ll be constructing other components, some of the support structures,” said Rogers. “Then the on-site work won’t start until after the mill season is over.”
The mill will remain operational over the course of the project.
Also this summer, the MetroParks will repave part of West Newport Drive. The project went out to bid Friday, with plans to award a contract in May.
The MetroParks also has several trail improvements underway and some improvements to the East Newport Boat Launch, Rogers said.