SAN ANGELO, Texas — For approximately 50 years now, Brown Park in San Angelo has been tucked away in the middle of a neighborhood at 2411 W. Twohig Ave.
Over time, the playground began deteriorating, becoming unsafe for users with outdated equipment.
Just a few days ago, the City of San Angelo's Parks Department completed renovations to the park with new swings and slides.
"So before the playground was installed, like I said, there had been no real renovations since the 1970s," City Parks Manager Mario De La O said. "There was some old metal equipment that was here, metal slides, you know, a jungle gym type deal, things that were safety hazards. The only things that were remaining at the time of the construction of this were two swing sets."
A few years ago, the City was allocated approximately $50,000 to redesign the playground thanks to the half-cent sales tax, which sets aside funding for new jobs, special projects and more.
Even with national inflation, De La O said his team was able to stay on budget. They first started construction back in late spring and after approximately three-four months, the playground is open to the public.
"So this playground behind us is geared more towards the two to five year old range," De La O said. "we've got some other parks around town that are geared towards the bigger kids and we wanted something for the younger kids especially since this is a neighborhood park and it's not a big community park and it's just something that serves mainly this neighborhood but along with the general public, as well. But we wanted something geared toward the smaller kids."
So far, the team has received a positive response following a post on the City of San Angelo's Facebook page.
Going forward, the goal is to update and build even more parks if possible.
"There's always hopes for renovating parks or adding new parks and of course it just depends on money that's allocated and if there's resources for that stuff but absolutely. We're always looking at playground renovations and that the one's that are getting older in age, what're we gonna do to replace those and we're always thinking ahead of trying to think ahead," De La O said.
The playground is aimed at younger children but people of all ages can make use of it.