May 18, 2016 2 min read

Kids may not get the chance to slide down a firehouse pole, but playground equipment manufacturers found a way to simulate that experience, just one of 10 features totaling about $107,000 to be added this summer to Washington County parks.

Washington County Planning Director Lisa Cessna described the drop zones to be installed at Ten Mile and Mingo Creek County Park’s Chapel Hill playgrounds as a plunging platform designers hope will entice children to jump off and scale again and again to make exercise fun. When the child leaps off, the platform, through hydraulics, ascends to the top of its tower.

A zip line, strung between two wishbone-shaped posts, will also be added to Chapel Hill, while a spinning vortex swing is to be installed at the Mingo ballfield playground, and a 50-foot hillside slide will empty into Watson Memorial Playground along Mingo’s main trail and road.

“Talking Bob,” described as an electronic game with a voice, is to become part of the playgrounds at Ten Mile and Mingo’s ballfield. A curved ladder known as a freestanding sky rail, geared toward 5- to 12-year-olds, will also become part of Ten Mile’s equipment.

A NEOS 360 electronic games structure, accessible to the disabled, can be played by one child or a team and is destined for the Thompson Hill playground at Cross Creek County Park, while a large web for climbing will be strung on the Route 50 side of the park.

Freight charges will bring the price tag to $111,904. Cessna asked the county commissioners to approve the purchases May 12 through a discounted state contract that does not require bidding from Jeffrey Associates of Indianola, Allegheny County.

Natural gas and oil revenues from Mingo and Cross Creek parks will pay for the costs associated with the new equipment, and Cessna said production from wells at Cross Creek would cover the Ten Mile Creek County Park expenditures. A letter to the county from Jeffrey Associates said the equipment can be shipped 40 to 50 days after it receives an order.