It’s more like a theme park and admission won’t cost you a dime.
The revitalization of Downtown Owensboro is on everyone’s mind this season. Last month, the 75th Annual Christmas Parade brought people downtown, and this month Winter Wonderland continues to draw crowds to Owensboro’s beautiful riverfront. The goal of this revitalization is to provide an environment year round that attracts people to live, work and play in downtown Owensboro.
Owensboro Parent recently sat down with Mayor Ron Payne to get the scoop on the riverfront changes.
“Downtown is going to come back to life again,” Mayor Payne said. “I think this is an exciting time for Owensboro. We haven’t had anything like this in 50 years.”
Mayor Payne, recently featured in a New York Times article for his dedication to this very project, is determined to make the Owensboro downtown revitalization a success.
“The greatest place in Kentucky to raise a family— we want to keep that title,” Mayor Payne said.
And Mayor Payne knows the key to keeping that title.
“If you want people downtown, provide something for the kids.”
And that is exactly what he hopes to do with the installation of an exciting, innovative playground.
“It’s more than a park or playground,” Mayor Payne said. “It’s a theme park. And it’s not going to cost you a dime.”
Not projected for completion until summer 2012, Mayor Payne said, “Hang tough. Great things are coming to Owensboro.”
Here is what you can expect to see. We think you and your kids are going to love it!
The overall design is more of a themed discovery zone than a typical park playground. The half acre of play equipment, “larger than life” themed elements, educational components and interactive fountains all combine to provide a truly signature play and learning experience for children of all ages and abilities.
“Larger than life” elements include a 20’ long Kentucky bass, a 6’ long Midland turtle, an interactive 13’ masonry jar with six fire flies and four 35’ Sassafras trees that will act as tree houses.
Play equipment will be broken into age groups 2-5 and 5-12 to allow age-appropriate play to be segregated. The Sassafras trees provide elevated access to the play equipment for children of all abilities.
An interactive splash pad and fountains will provide riverfront adventure. Both conventional at-grade fountain nozzles and above ground nozzles will be installed. Oversized leaves that twist together to form archways, which will spray children that pass under, will surround the perimeter of the fountain.