BRYAN, Texas — The City of Bryan wants to improve our local parks by upgrading structures at Bonham Park and Tanglewood Park.
These parks will have their old equipment replaced due to them reaching their life expectancy.
“We’re always evaluating our equipment across the city,” said Kody Junek, Parks Operations Supervisor for the City of Bryan. “Things that go into that evaluation consists of accessibility to the playground, functionality of the units, and also the amount of play that they receive, and safety, safety is our number one factor.”
Caitlin Grygar and her son, Jax, enjoy coming to Tanglewood Park.
“He wants to be outside more than anybody I’ve ever met,” Grygar said. “It doesn’t matter the weather and so we come to different parks so that we can experience different things. He can learn how to climb, or he can learn how to slide.”
With more than 30 playgrounds in our neighborhood, they visit multiple parks throughout the week in Bryan.
“We do come over here at least twice a week if not more because it’s so open,” Grygar said. “He goes back and forth between the two parks.”
Kody Junek with the City of Bryan said it is time to replace these old park structures due to everyday use and replacement parts no longer being available.
This project will include $465,638 worth of upgrades.
“With these two units at both Bonham and Tanglewood being right around 20 years old, it’s time to revamp them and get something new and improve what we currently have,” Junek said.
With Bonham Park being built in 2002 and Tanglewood Park being built in 2006, Junek said playgrounds have a life expectancy of 15 to 20 years.
At Bonham Park, the new structures will include three slides, interactive play panels, and an athletic arch.
Tanglewood Park will have four slides, a rope tunnel, and stem play gears.
Both parks will have new ladders, climbers, and fall zones covered in bonded rubber mulch.
“We try to spread that love across the city and make sure we’re feeding the needs of the community in every district,” Junek said.
“I’m excited,” Grygar said. “I think Jax will be really excited when we come back and see a new park. That’s what he likes about going everywhere else because he gets to find new things to do, so now this park that we come to, he’ll be able to find new things to do, there will be more slides, just more for him to do and run his energy out.”
The City of Bryan will work on these two parks over the next few months with a hopeful completion date of August 31.
You can see the future of Bonham and Tanglewood Parks here.