TOLEDO, Ohio — An area to exercise, a playground and a picnic area are all things soon to come to a park in east Toledo called Yondota Park.
On Monday, residents met with city officials to discuss what they would like to see the park become.
There were three options: a regular playground, a multi-generational concept or a mound-themed play area.
The city of Toledo's director of parks, recreation and youth services, Joe Fausnaugh, said the people chose the multi-generational concept believing that would serve the neighborhood best.
"It has equipment for all ages so there's some exercise for the older kids and adults, your traditional play equipment for the kids 5-to-12 years old," Fausnaugh said. "It also incorporates picnic tables and grills and accessible sidewalks to access that."
Fausnaugh said the park has been an empty plot of land for more than 20 years as the old playground was taken out due to safety concerns.
As playground safety standards began to change, playground equipment had to be removed if they did not maintain those standards.
"In the case of Yondota (Park), the equipment was installed over an asphalt pad," Fausnaugh said. "So if you can imagine falling off the monkey bars onto asphalt."
Fausnaugh said the intent was to put something back, but other priorities needed attention.
"You know as you're working through your budget process and trying to weigh 'do we hire more police, or firemen or do we install a playground?'" said Fausnaugh. "Sometimes the playground's lost that argument and so over the years, spaces got forgotten and I'm just happy to say we're correcting that."
A few residents said this new playground will be something very useful for their community and what they've wanted for a while now.
"I have grandkids and they stay in the house and don't have nothing to do, I would love to have them to come down here and I come down here with them and play in the park," said Marjorie Glass, a woman who lives a few minutes from the park. "They need something for the kids so they can interact with other kids."
"It's a good idea, because there are no parks for these children around here and these children these days need somewhere to go to get their energy out so they don't drive their parents nuts," said Jennifer Gatton, another resident.
But some neighbors said there are some safety concerns that should be taken into consideration when building the park, commenting on the fencing and suggesting cameras.
"There's big gaps in the fence and there's a lot of dogs running around this neighborhood," said Devin Price, another local. "If they want to upgrade this park and have a lot of kids here, I think this fencing area is one thing that really needs to get taken care of."
Fausnaugh said construction for the new park will start sometime next spring.