Illinois
‘The kids chose a great playground’: Geometric climbing structure coming to Rolling Meadows park
Quito, a 15-foot high play structure manufactured by Pennsylvania-based Playworld, will be installed in July at Countryside Park in Rolling Meadows.
Courtesy of Rolling Meadows Park District
A Rolling Meadows park is set to become the first in Illinois to feature a geometric net climber on its playground, officials said.
The unique play structure is called Quito, a 15-foot high playhouse that allows kids “to climb, balance, and teeter their way in, over, and through,” according to Playworld, the commercial playground equipment manufacturer.
The structure will be installed in July, along with friendship swings for families and tire swing-style equipment for multiple users, at Countryside Park, 4360 Euclid Ave.
Children selected the new playground out of three proposals brought by vendors to a community input meeting in February.
“The kids chose a great playground,” said Superintendent of Parks Brian McKenna. “Out of the choices, this would have been the one I would have picked.”
The park district is paying Westchester-based sales agency Imagine Nation $165,000 for the new playground equipment, but officials expect to save about $65,000 by doing the installation in-house, McKenna said.
Park districts commonly donate old playgrounds around the world, but officials said the old Countryside Park playground, at 20 years old, is too outdated to be reused or donated.
Quito is named after the capital city of Ecuador, not only the highest capital in the world, but the one closest to the equator. The webbed play structure has bells at the top and ground levels, triangle windows and a triangle roof.
McKenna said the structure promotes a creative play experience as children attempt various ways to climb through the web.
“Children can climb on it differently each time they use it,” McKenna said. “With the slide, you go up the steps, sit on the slide and slide down. That experience isn’t going to change much. When you have a large climbing structure like Quito, children are offered a range of options for navigating and traversing the framework from various angles.”
The first Quito climber was installed in 2022 at a park in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where Playworld is headquartered.
The Chicago Bears released a statement on Wednesday after Illinois legislators took a step forward with keeping the team in the state.
Shortly after the bill passed out of a House committee 15-5 and then was passed again by the full House, the Bears said the bill is not enough for them.
“We welcome the progress made on the House’s version of the mega project bill; however, additional amendments are necessary to make the Arlington Heights site feasible for our stadium project. We support Illinois leaders as they determine the path forward to making the essential changes to the mega project bill and aligning on infrastructure funding,” the team said in a statement.
The vote on Wednesday came after lawmakers spent weeks working to address concerns and criticism that the bill provided incentives to the team to leave Chicago and surrounding potential revenue shortfalls to area schools if the stadium is built in Arlington Heights.
Despite the team’s dissatisfaction, the megaprojects bill, which would allow the Bears to negotiate property tax payments directly with the Village of Arlington Heights, is headed now to the Senate.
A key piece of legislation designed to keep the Chicago Bears’ stadium project in Illinois is being weighed, and Rose Schmidt has details on what’s in it.
That said, the bill’s lead Senate sponsor State Sen. Bill Cunningham told NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern that legislators “feel no pressure to take a vote next week” when the Senate returns on Tuesday.
“We will work this bill like any other bill,” Cunningham said.
Though the team is not satisfied with the deal, it seems Illinois Governor Pritzker is.
“Governor Pritzker has been clear and consistent for years that the Bears should remain in Illinois, and that any legislation needs to protect taxpayers. Throughout the past few months, the Governor’s Office brought team leadership, local officials, and legislative partners to the table to craft a deal around public infrastructure improvements, property tax fairness, and affordability measures. Today is an important step, and the Governor’s Office looks forward to working with the Illinois General Assembly to advance a bill that reflects our shared priorities,” Pritzker’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
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