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Community

Planning New Playground for Credit Island

one of two designs for the new nature-based play area
Davenport Parks and Recreation
one of two designs for the new nature-based play area

Hoping to bring recreation back to Credit Island, plans are in the works to build a new playground near the lodge.

Director of Parks and Recreation, Chad Dyson, says it'll be what he calls a nature-based play area, that will NOT have such traditional features and slides, swings, and merry-go-rounds.

"A nature-based playground uses natural elements to create the play space. So It utilizes timbers, boulders, ropes, and other things that create a sense of adventure and open play."

There are two possible designs for the new play area, and public comments are welcome through the end of this week.

Based on the comments, Dyson says his staff will then make a final choice, finalize the design, and go out for bids. Construction could begin in late summer or early fall, at a cost of 170,000 dollars.

He thinks the more natural play area will fit in with the natural look of Credit Island and cost less to maintain or replace.

Community
A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois. While a graduate student in the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield (then known as Sangamon State University), he got his first taste of public radio, covering Illinois state government for WUIS. Here in the Quad Cities, Herb worked for WHBF Radio before coming to WVIK in 1987. Herb also produces the weekly public affairs feature Midwest Week – covering the news behind the news by interviewing reporters about the stories they cover.