Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Creekside Park: Going To The Extreme
FARMINGTON — If you want to test your agility, strength, endurance and balance, Creekside Park will be the place to go in the near future.
Clevenger Recreation of Little Rock has been installing 15 Ninja warrior style fitness stations as part of a $2 million expansion to Creekside Park, located between Hunter Street and Broyles Avenue in Farmington.
Farmington City Council approved a bid of $206,700 from Power Play Lt. and ACS Playground Adventures for the Fitcore Extreme Obstacle Course. Clevenger Recreation should complete its work this week and then another company will come in to put down a rubberized surface.
Sherry Mathews, who chairs the city’s Parks and Recreation Committee, championed this section, saying she wanted something extra for adults to do at the park.
Mathews said the surface should be finished by July 29 but she did not know when the obstacle course would be open to the public.
The $2 million expansion includes a new playground for older kids, two lighted tennis courts and two lighted basketball
courts, bathroom facility, pavilion and walking trail.
In addition, the new park area will have benches, picnic tables, grills, bike racks, trash cans and lids, a parking lot with 122 parking spaces, landscaping and lighting.
Now that the obstacle course is in the ground and not just photos on a page or website, Mathews said she believes it’s “even more awesome.”
She’s already heard comments from people who are waiting to use the Ninja style stations, including friends who go to places such as Cross Fit and several firefighters who plan to use it for additional training on their own.
“I think it’s going to be great,” Mathews said. “When you see it from the road, it’s an eye-catcher. There’s definitely not another one like this in the area.”
Mike Clevenger with Clevenger Recreation said participants can start at the first station and go in order if they want to complete the obstacle course.
Each station has signage that gives instructions or photos on how to use the equipment.
For the last station, a person will attempt to climb a fireman’s pole and ring the bell.
Clevenger said his company is installing lots of fitness extreme stations because of the popularity of shows such as American Ninja Warrior.
“A lot of parks are adding adult fitness stations to their playgrounds,” he said.
Mayor Ernie Penn points to Mathews as the leader who pushed the fitcore stations for adults.
“For a park, you just think about the kids,” Penn said. “But adults like to play too.”
He said the course will cover a lot of people, especially those in their 20s to 50s who are into fitness and challenges.
“It’s pretty cool stuff. I won’t be able to use it but a lot of young adults will,” Penn said.
Penn said he hopes all projects will be completed by the middle of August but is not quite ready to give a definite date.
His one suggestion is for people to be patient. He has received a lot of suggestions and Penn said his response is “let’s get the construction finished and then we can talk about other things.”