By DEWEY TERRILL
JC Post

The new improvements to the Fifth Street Playground Park have been well received, including by members of the Junction City Commission. It’s common to see the new playground equipment in full usage by children, accompanied by parents.

Speaking during a Tuesday night commission meeting, Mayor Pat Landes said, “I’ve never seen that many kids at a city park anywhere ever!

Landes said city officials look at things to try and attract residents to the community. “It’s things like that.”

The mayor pointed to the busy turnout in the park, and added that it makes him think more things like that are needed if they really want to attract people to the area. “We can say we got 22 parks, but we got 22 parks that have equipment that’s 40 years old. So I think that’s something we really need to start looking at in future budgets, to try to gear things towards improvements at the park facilities, sprinkled throughout town not just at one park.”

The mayor also noted that the accomplishment by the Quality Play for All Committee in the 5th Street Park is tremendous and they still have more plans going forward into the future. “But I think we need to consider that kind of stuff going forward as we plan for the future.”