Eken Park Playground Improvements
Last Updated: 11/22/2022
The City of Madison replaced the playground equipment at Eken Park!
Construction was completed in early 2022.
Public Engagement and Design
The City of Madison Parks Division held two meetings to discuss the playground improvements at Eken Park in 2020.The first public meeting was a playground workshop held with two other neighborhoods on November 9, 2020. At this virtual meeting City staff presented the Madison Parks playground input process, provided background on Madison’s playgrounds, and sought input from the neighborhood on individual park playgrounds.
The second public meeting was a playground meeting held on January 6, 2021. At this meeting City staff presented three playground designs and meeting attendees selected the preferred equipment for the Eken Park playground replacement.
The new playground equipment will be installed in spring 2022.
PUBLIC INPUT MEETING #2 (Via Zoom)
Wednesday, January 6, 2021@ 6pm
PUBLIC INPUT MEETING #1 - PLAYGROUND WORKSHOP
Monday, November 9, 2020 at 6:00 pm - Virtual meeting
Background on Madison Playgrounds
The City of Madison currently owns and maintains approximately 180 playgrounds across the park system. This does not include most school playgrounds, which are owned and maintained by MMSD. The 180 playgrounds equates to 7 per 10,000 residents. According to the Trust for Public Land’s (TPL) annual rating of the 100 largest municipal parks systems in the nation, this puts Madison at #1 and by a fairly sizable margin. As a comparison, Cincinnati has approximately 5 playgrounds per 10K residents, and is currently 2nd in the annual ranking in this category. This places Madison at approximately 40% more playgrounds per capita than other leading communities. Of cities reported by the TPL that have the highest playgrounds per capita, the per capita ratio is between 2.4 and 4.7 playgrounds per 10,000 residents. There are only two municipalities with amounts higher, Madison at 7.1 and Cincinnati at 5.0 playgrounds per capital. Madison Parks is certainly proud of this ranking, but such a sizable system of playgrounds does mean there are significant costs to develop and maintain the system in a safe and accessible manner.
In the 1990’s there was a significant reinvestment in playgrounds to move away from wood structures, which were inaccessible, towards equipment that was safer and met ADA guidelines. At this time, the primary surfacing selected for installation was crumb rubber and/or pea gravel. By 2012, there was a significant need to reinvest in our playgrounds again as many were reaching the end of their useful life at similar times. This led to the Parks Division working collaboratively with Alders, the Mayor, and the Board of Park Commissioners to establish a programmatic approach to the replacement of over 120 of the playgrounds over the next decade beginning in 2013. The Council adopted RES-13-00034, Legistar 27854, in January 2013. This called on the Parks Division to develop a replacement program that prioritized playgrounds based on safety, age and condition in a fair and equitable manner. The program was to include a standard playground equipment package, prioritized yearly capital budget plan for the replacements and equitable guidelines that would allow for neighborhoods to contribute financially to the project.
Additional history and information on the playground process can be found in this letter from Parks Superintendent Eric Knepp to All Alders on July 28, 2020.