Parents will have another cure for cabin fever at their
disposal Wednesday when the Fargo Park District opens its first indoor park
with a towering playground structure at the newly expanded and renamed Courts
Plus Community Fitness.
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/390350/
District officials hope the playground – the centerpiece of a roughly $4 million renovation and expansion of Courts Plus – will lead to healthier children and new members for the publicly owned facility, which has about 5,000 members.
Park board member Joe Deutsch began pushing for an indoor playground in the summer of 2010 to give children a place to play during cold weather. District officials decided pairing it with Courts Plus would allow the playground to stay open year-round and make Courts Plus more appealing.
The Junior League of Fargo-Moorhead, a women’s service club with charitable and educational goals, got involved in October 2011. The group had been looking to take on a large community project and, with many moms among its members, identified the need for an indoor playground.
“Fargo, as you know, gets very, very cold, and it’s hard to find places to bring your kids in the winter,” said Christina Snider, the league’s community vice president.
League members and park district officials toured more than a dozen indoor playgrounds – some multiple times – in the Twin Cities area and elsewhere, including the 37-foot-high Adventure Peak in Edina, Minn., and the Backyard at the Community and Cultural Center in Detroit Lakes, Minn.
With input from the league, the district expanded its playground plan and bought the equipment from International Play Co. of Langley, B.C. The structure is 52 feet long by 36 feet wide by 36 feet tall. Together with an adjacent parents’ lounge, pirate ship-themed toddler area and interactive room with exercise-based video games.
Published February 16, 2013, 11:30 PMMore images to follow, their grand opening is February 20, 2013
