Heritage Park in Fairfield to receive new playground equipment

FAIRFIELD – Heritage Park in the northwest corner of Fairfield will have new playground equipment this summer.

The Fairfield City Council approved the purchase of new equipment for just over $130,000, the majority of which will come from the city’s Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) fund. Fairfield City Engineer and Public Works Director Melanie Carlson said this amount is about what the city spent on the new play structure at Waterworks Park in 2023, and the one planned for Heritage Park will also be a similar size.

The new playground will be installed north of the gravel parking lot and west of the basketball court, farther away from the traffic on North Ninth Street. Carlson expects installation before early June.

“We have been setting aside a portion of LOST funds each year over the last few years for playground equipment,” Carlson said. “We knew a lot of the playground equipment in our parks was out of date, and we wanted to check them off one by one.”

Carlson said Heritage Park was chosen for a few reasons, one of which is that it has not received new equipment in recent years, unlike most of the city’s other parks such as O.B. Nelson, Waterworks, Lamson Woods and Howard, which have all received large pieces of new equipment in the last five years. Plus, Heritage Park has been getting more use due to more houses going up nearby on North 12 th Street, and because of the new LISCO pickleball courts on the north side of the park.

“I think that area of town has more young families, or perhaps it’s easy for families to travel to,” Carlson said.

Carlson said the city’s comprehensive plan that the council adopted a few years ago recommends maintaining parks throughout the city so that every home is within half a mile of a park.

“Heritage Park serves a large part of our population that is not served by any other park,” she said.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com