Farmington's Pine Knoll Park will get a $120,000 facelift

• Photo: Pine Knoll improvements

A rendering of what Pine Knoll Park’s new playground equipment will look like.

Talk about it

It might be cold and blustery this week, but the Farmington City Council was thinking of warmer days when they approved improvement’s to Pine Knoll Park Monday.

Tucked away between Akin Road and Pilot Knob in Farmington’s mid-section, Pine Knoll Park is only about four acres but it has been around for a couple of decades already. The park’s playground equipment has been there for about 20 years.

“We’re coming to the end of its useful life,” Distad said.

The city of Farmington has been working on updating its parks over the past few years. Last year, a parking lot, park shelter and new playground equipment was added at Lake Julia Park. This year, Pine Knoll is up for renovation. It’s all part of a long-term parks master plan developed by the Farmington Parks and Recreation Commission and the Farmington City Council.

The master plan allows for $120,000 in expenditures at Pine Knoll Park this year. The park already has a parking lot, but it does not have a shelter. It will get one later this year, though, because $30,000 is set aside to build a 751-square-foot picnic shelter that will hold approximately eight picnic tables, Distad said.

Another $65,000 is earmarked for new playground equipment. Two types of equipment will be installed — a smaller unit for kids ages 2 to 5, and a larger one for older kids ages 5-12. Installing two sets of playground equipment is now part of the plan for all of Farmington’s parks, Distad said.

“It’s something we want to do, because the 5-12 equipment really isn’t built for the younger kids,” Distad said.

The city received six bids for the playground equipment, with Midwest Playscapes of Chaska submitting the lowest bid. The bid includes the equipment, shipping and installation of the playground equipment.

Removal of the old equipment will be completed by Kids Around the World, a company that removes and restores used playground equipment.

“They will refurbish it and send it off to a Third World country, so it doesn’t end up in a landfill somewhere. It’s reused,” Distad said. “There is no charge for the removal, either. In exchange for getting the equipment, they don’t charge us for the removal.”

The park renovation plan also calls for $15,000 for construction of a new basketball court, $6,000 for construction of a concrete border around the new playground equipment and $4,000 for wood fiber safety surfacing material under the playground equipment.

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