Input Sought on LITH Playground Equipment

Lake in the Hills Parks and Recreation Division is inviting all interested residents to help select the new playground equipment for LaBuy Park on Hilltop Drive. The village received nine different conceptual layouts to replace the existing playground and is seeking input from park users before making a final decision, according to a village news release.

The Focus Group will meet at 6 p.m. on Thursday, February 7 in the village board room at the village hall, 600 Harvest Gate. The meeting is expected to last about 30 to 45 minutes.

Each of the nine layouts will be presented and the public will be given an opportunity to comment on each design.

Immediately following the Focus Group meeting, the Parks and Recreation Board will meet and use the public input to select three finalists.

The finalists will have until the end of February to refine their design and provide a final bid on their layout, according to the news release.

The Parks and Recreation Board will review the final designs at their March 7 meeting and make a recommendation to the Village Board of Trustees to award a contract. The new playground is expected to be open by summer, village officials said.

“We have totally changed our selection process this year to allow our residents more input to the final design.,” said Megan Croy, Assistant Director for Parks and Recreation. “We started with a survey of our residents. The survey was given to the contractors to develop these proposed layouts. We are now asking for more input to allow the contractors to further refine their design to best meet the needs of our residents.”

The current playground was installed in 1998. Due to its age, replacement parts are more difficult to obtain.

Additionally, replacement will help control maintenance costs as the equipment ages. These considerations resulted in the replacement of the playground equipment being included in the village’s 2019 Capital Improvement Fund Budget.

PHOTO VIA VILLAGE OF LITH