Inclusive Playground at Andrews Park opens to the public on March 9

Children of all abilities will be able to play together at a City of Norman park when a new inclusive playground at Andrews Park opens this week. The Parks & Recreation Department has invited the Norman community to join them for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5:30 p.m. on March 9th where they will celebrate the opening of this important community resource. Light refreshments will be served, and there will be an opportunity to meet and interact with other community members.

The $350,000 project was made possible through funding of a City-wide ADA compliance project. The playground will include access ramps, elevated walkways, low-hanging monkey bars and a poured rubber surface that accommodates wheelchair movement, among other features that allow for increased accessibility. The project contractor is Playcore dba Gametime, with design by Cunningham Recreation. Other partners include Lyon's Fence, Can do Construction and B&B Sod.

Norman's first inclusive playground at Ruby Grant Park was completed in 2020 and set the precedent for the Andrews Park renovation. It sparked conversations regarding increased inclusive playgrounds at the city's other parks.

"If you look at Ruby Grant you have almost 6,000 square feet of poured surface, and this one is about half of that, but with the same types of features," said Jason Olsen, director of Norman Parks and Recreation. "We can't wait for this special celebration and hope that everyone will join us!"

The Parks & Recreation Department have had preliminary discussions about increased accessibility at the playgrounds in Reaves, Saxon, Little Axe, Lions and Griffin Community Parks and are planning projects at those sites with the ultimate goal of making highly accessible playgrounds the standard at all Norman Community Parks.

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