Orland Park Approves Almost $1 Million To Update 6 Playgrounds

ORLAND PARK, IL — Orland Park officials voted to commit almost $1 million to update six of the village's playgrounds at last week's board meeting.

According to a recent assessment conducted for Orland Park in 2019, village parks and playgrounds are in need of an upgrade in order to maintain the low ratio of parks to residents.

Throughout the village's 66 parks, 56 of them have playground equipment. The study showed officials many playgrounds contained equipment, mulch and barriers that were aging or not accessible to all residents.

Prior to the 2019 study, the village was renovating only one playground per year, said Brian Fei, assistant director of public works. Over the last two years, the village has now accepted bids and completed upgrades on 10 playgrounds.

This year, six playgrounds will be given new equipment, mulch, edge restraints, site amenities such as restrooms and be updated to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Playgrounds to be renovated are:

• Brown Park
• Eagle Ridge II Park
• Heritage Park
• Ishnala Park
• Parkview Estates Park
• Wedgewood Commons Park

Residents who live within 500 feet of the above parks were given notice and invited to take a survey on the village's website. According to village documents, a Minnesota-based company called Landscape Structures, Inc. will be completing renovations for $966,101.

"We have three to four times as many parks as similar sized towns throughout the country," Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau said. "If you go back to 2000 or 1998, we were fixing one park every two years. We really changed how we're doing things which started in 2019 when we assessed the state of our parks."

Pekau said the village will conduct the same assessment next year in order to re-rank and identify which playgrounds need improvement.