May 19, 2024
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Yorkville Parks Department prioritizes accessibility, ADA upgrades in new park projects

By Hannah Soukup
Yorkville's Parks and Recreation department is doing construction on Emily Sleezer Park and Kiwanis Park (pictured above). Park construction is aimed to better fit current ADA standards and promote inclusivity.

Yorkville's Parks and Recreation department is doing construction on Emily Sleezer Park and Kiwanis Park (pictured above). Park construction is aimed to better fit current ADA standards and promote inclusivity. (Photo provided by Yorkville's Parks and Recreation Department)

Yorkville Parks Department is focusing on making parks more disability-friendly through the reconstruction and renovation of two preexisting parks: Emily Sleezer Park and Kiwanis Park.

With the average age of Yorkville parks being about 7-years-old, and some upwards of 20-years-old, the department wants to ensure parks are meeting current Americans with Disabilities Act standards as well as providing an enjoyable experience for children.

“The goal is to make them even more ADA-friendly,” said Ryan Horner, Yorkville playground foreman and certified safety inspector. “That’s really because, keep in mind, some of these parks are 20-years-old. They were opened to a 20-year-old ADA standard. Well the standard is different now, and we have the ability to do and change things and add more for the public and for the special needs.”

Emily Sleezer Park, located at 837 Homestead Drive, will undergo an entire equipment replacement and the addition of more inclusive features. The 22-year-old park was completely torn down on March 4, and construction is set to begin in April. The park is set to be complete by May or June.

Emily Sleezer Park will be fully reconstructed and redesigned beginning April. The 22-year-old park was donated to Kids Around the World, a nonprofit aimed at providing parks and other services to children in need.

Emily Sleezer Park will be fully reconstructed and redesigned beginning April. The 22-year-old park was donated to Kids Around the World, a nonprofit aimed at providing parks and other services to children in need. (Photo provided by Yorkville's Parks and Recreation Department)

The Parks Department collaborated with the nonprofit Kids Around the World to donate old equipment to areas where parks are not present. The program takes down old parks and uses refurbishable equipment.

“It’s really hard to reinstall an older playground within the U.S. and all that,” said Scott Sleezer, Yorkville’s superintendent of parks. “They [Kids Around the World] took [down] Sleezer on March 4, so we have and we had to work with their schedule. The park [is] getting started here in April and probably going until the end of May and early June for construction.”

The budget for the Sleezer Park changes is $85,000. The park is planned to include a merry-go-round and other ground features to allow children to step away if feeling overwhelmed.

“We’re trying some new, unique pieces that are for a child to take a break from the chaos,” Horner said. “There’s some research showing that maybe kids are kind of trying to just hang out on the edges.”

Kiwanis Park, located at 1809 Country Hills Drive, is undergoing a hybrid construction. Some of the 20-year-old park’s original posts will be used while more features for disabled children will be added, specifically ones that make the park more wheelchair-accessible.

The park’s construction began in late-November, early-December 2023. Based on a few setbacks the department faced, Sleezer said the construction has been stagnant, but it is predicted to be completed by the end of May.

“We’ve had some pieces that were manufactured wrong,” Sleezer said “We’re in the process of getting new parts manufactured that are correct, so that’s kind of where we’re at in that, but we still anticipate getting that one done by the end of May.”

The budget for Kiwanis park work is $100,000. The planned park construction consists of making the playground off-ground and adding a tall tower, a large tube slide and more.

“It will be a high playground with wheelchair access to the place, and then we also incorporated a fairly tall tower, 15 or 16 feet, with a huge tube slide,” Sleezer said. “But we really wanted to do a lot of ADA-friendly channels and things there just because there was already a ramp, so we saw a great opportunity to do that. We also removed the sandbox and will be adding therapy swings and baby swings, but it’ll have inclusive therapy swings as well.”

“We’re trying some new, unique pieces that are for a child to take a break from the chaos. There’s some research showing that maybe kids are kind of trying to just hang out on the edges.”

—   Ryan Horner, Yorkville playground foreman and certified safety inspector

There will also be a colored bench for children among other features such as fidget spinners to give children the option to step away from the main play structure.

“It’s really trying that out to see how that is accepted, and it may be something that we want to repeat at some of our other parks when we replace them,” Sleezer said. “It’s not important just to meet it [the ADA standard], but we want to exceed it.”