Myrick Park Kids Coulee Playground in La Crosse reopening for first time in 2 years
LA CROSSE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – After being closed in 2022 for repairs and updates, a La Crosse playground has returned to bring joy to kids. First News at Nine’s Dashal Mentzel was at Myrick Park this morning for their reopening event.
The city of La Crosse hosted a grand reopening ceremony at the newly updated Myrick Park Kids Coulee Playground. City Parks, Forestry, and Facilities Deputy Director, Dan Trussoni, says the neighborhood inspired the rebuild, “They came to us, and we knew the playground was aging, and something had to be done. We knew that we needed to get community input on it. The overwhelming response was that they wanted to maintain the existing look and feel that it had.”
Trussoni says the park’s playground has had a big impact on the community ever since it was first built, “Local rotary groups, organized the build 30 years ago. and they had over 3700 volunteers who came together to build this. So, it’s had that community feel to it.”
The $1.2 million project saw updates to the existing wooden structure, as well as some new additions, “Some of the new features, we’ve got some in-ground slides. We’ve got a zip line and some new surfacing.”
I asked some of the kids what their favorite part about the playground was. It appears that the new additions to the playground have already become popular with the kids, “It has a zipline.”
“Zipline!
“The big grass hill with more slides!”
The UW La Crosse Athletic Department was one of the partners in the project. UWL Athletic Director, Kim Blum, says they want to help the community in any way they can, “Our motto is ‘building champions in sport in school and in life’. We’re part of this community. We want to contribute to the community. And so, tying that building champions motto into the building industry with those businesses is really where all of that came to be.”
City officials say working on a new playground was a collaborative effort and that is what makes the playground so special. In La Crosse, Dashal Mentzel First News at Nine.
The city paid $1.05 million for the project. The rest of the money, totaling $150,000, was donated from local organizations and community members.
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