The Town of Blacksburg is seeking citizen input in an effort to bring the Hand-in-Hand wooden playground, located on Turner Street in the Blacksburg Municipal Park,up to current national safety standards.
The park was built by community volunteers in 1992. While the 30-year-old structure has brought joy and entertainment to many children, it is showing much wear and tear and needs to be redesigned.
Leathers & Associates, the same company that helped design the original playground, will once again be working with the town to design and install a new custom-designed destination playground using modern materials. The Town of Blacksburg envisions that this playground will continue to serve ages 2-12 and will include benches and small table tops throughout the playground, along with wood chips (made of engineered wood fiber) as its base.
It is important to Blacksburg that this playground continues to reflect the imaginations of the town’s children while meeting the wants and needs of the community. Therefore, citizen input is invited on the new playground design by Sept.11, 2022.
Citizens may say what they have enjoyed about the original playground that they want to see included in the new playground. They may also suggest themes for the new playground and help decide what playground elements should be included in the redesign.
According to the town, kid input is welcome, encouraged, and essential.
Citizens may participate in three ways:
Complete the online playground survey on Let’s Talk Blacksburg.
Draw a picture of what the new playground should look like and upload drawings, pictures, or other ideas for the playground onto the Let’s Talk Blacksburg Hand-in-Hand project page.
Participate in the Town’s interactive engagement event on Saturday, Aug. 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Blacksburg Recreation Center, 755 Patrick Henry Drive. This event will include fun and interactive activities so children can provide their input on the new playground.
Leathers & Associates will use all the community input provided to create two conceptual plans for the new playground. Citizens will then have an opportunity in October to select the plan they prefer. The winter of 2023 will be spent finalizing plans, ordering materials, and beginning site work. The town plans to unveil the new playground in May of 2023.
