Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 07/08/2021

Home

Figure 14: North Commons Park Playground wipe shot; Figures I5-16: (left to right) bridge connecting to upper portion of the playground structure, ladder with accessibility concerns in the background; ladder with five orthogonal rings Pearson Park Pearson Park is a small neighborhood park in southwestern Ramsey, located along Rabbit Street, north of U.S. 10 and Bunker Lake Boulevard, and south of Alpine Drive. Its playground was built in 2018. The Pearson Park playground is a nature -based play area. Most of its components are made from minimally -processed naturally occurring materials. The structural supports holding up the main play area are made from logs, and the guardrails are logs cut into thin sheets. Another play feature, located on a hill to the north of the main playground structure, consists of short logs arranged in a figure -eight shape. Adjacent to the figure -eight feature is a ring of seven rocks with flat surfaces for standing on. Being Ramsey's first nature -based playground, it is unique within the city in a number of ways. It utilizes both sand and artificial turf for surfacing, and also has several trees planted throughout the play area. Moreover, it has cut pieces of logs scattered throughout the play surface. All of the logs are from tamarack trees growing northwest of Duluth, Minnesota. The playground includes a long metal slide (enclosed near the top, but open near the bottom) that bends slightly near the middle. The main point of egress is a wooden bridge accessible via a concrete sidewalk. The other three means of egress are a thin wooden climbing wall (background of Figure 15) and two rope climbing structures. The larger one lines the southeast corner of the playground structure, while the smaller rope structure is located in the center. An octagonal opening in the wooden deck of the playground structure allows for egress via the smaller rope structure. The smaller rope structure is enclosed and also has large curved footholds for ease of use. All playground components are in good condition. 18