The City of Jonesboro Parks and Recreation Department and Jonesboro Rotary clubs are proud to announce plans for a new playground at Craighead Forest Park. The playground will be located at Access #6 and nestled within the stand of trees just east of the bandshell. The inception of this project began as a response from the overwhelming success of the Rotary Centennial Park located at Access #5 in Craighead Forest Park; which is adjacent to the proposed site.
The innovative playground design will be unique, as it is a custom design created by employees of the onesboro Parks and Recreation Department and ARKOMA Playgrounds with Landscape Structures. The playground will be 38x80 feet and will resemble a frontier fort from the early days of westward expansion. Thanks to help from Steve McDaniel of Jonesboro Police Department, a wall design was decided upon that would provide secluded fun for children while allowing parents to view all activities from outside the fort. The Rotary Fort playground will boast towers with as many as three stories, a two story walkway that peers over the fort's walls, “arrow slits” to peer out of, a periscope to view distant portions of the park, unique spring-riders made to look like buffalo, and a host of other common but loved features such as slides, ladders and climbing features.
Construction should start and reach completion in the spring of 2009. The project's $350,000 cost is being made possible thanks to funding from the three Rotary clubs of Jonesboro, Jonesboro Parks and Recreation Department, Arkansas Parks and Tourism, and donations from private individuals. If you would like to contribute to this project or even name or dedicate features within Fort Rotary please contact Jeff Owens at jowens@jonesboro.org or 870-933-4604. Photos below are from the October, 2008 announcement and construction photos taken in April, 2009.
