Third Street Park is ready for the community to enjoy.

New children’s play equipment with mulching and new stairs leading to the ballpark on Third Street was recently completed.

“This is a $92,000 project that was funded by the Patterson Family Foundation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Pathways to a Healthy Kansas, and a contribution from The City of Fort Scott,” Rachel Carpenter, director of the Healthy Bourbon Action Team (HBCAT), who is spearheading the project, said.

“The playground is open to the public!” she said.

The need for Third Street Park’s improvement project was identified by the community through public forums, surveys, and a steering committee, according to Carpenter, in a prior press release.

A Building Up Our Neighborhoods Placemaking project has already repaired the bathrooms and existing structures, including the basketball goal. Last month stairs were made from the upper level of the park to the lower level.

Community members were able to develop priorities that they wanted to see happen at the park, Carpenter said in a  prior press release. Those priorities:

• Repairing the bathrooms
• Repairing the existing structures
• Repairing the basketball goal
• Adding additional playground structures
• Adding stairs

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“Fort Scott Kiwanis provided volunteers to fix the existing structures, the basketball goals, and paint the bathrooms,” she said. “The City of Fort Scott provided an additional $10,000 that will go towards fixing up the bathrooms, fixing the pavilion floor, and surfacing for the existing structures.”

‘We are still collaborating with the City of Fort Scott to update the fixtures of the bathroom and fix the pavilion floor,” Carpenter said.

Last week, Playscapes, Yates Center, installed the new playground structures and put down the rubber mulch surfacing.

The playground structures include a Temple Trolley, a Swizzler, and two bouncers.