Sitka Community Playground project wins facility award from the Alaska Recreation and Parks Associat

The Sitka Community Playground, which opened in July 2018 and was a 2015 Sitka Health Summit community wellness project, recently won a facility excellence award from the Alaska Recreation and Parks Association. The playground is located on Lincoln Street, next to the Sitka Sound Science Center and the Sitka tennis courts.

The playground, the first one in Sitka that is American Disabilities Act compliant, cost about $1 million to build, and involved thousands of volunteer hours in addition to the work of paid contractors. The project was first proposed at the 2011 Sitka Health Summit, then was reintroduced at the 2015 Sitka Health Summit after the earlier project stalled. Volunteers went to Sitka school classes to get ideas from the kids about what they wanted, then those ideas were used to design the playground.

There will be a brief presentation at the Sitka Assembly meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 12, at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Supporters are encouraged to attend the meeting and wear their Sitka Community Playground t-shirts.