Efforts to build a new playground in downtown Princeton are making progress.
Forces interested in the playground project converged at the Chamber of Commerce office on Sept. 24 to develop a unified plan toward the goal of building the new playground.
The committee’s goals in building the playground include keeping children more active, preventing obesity and providing a space for unstructured social playtime.
“The first step we’re trying to do is identify a location,” said Chamber Executive Director Kate Prince, one of the committee’s members, “somewhat pick out equipment, and then we’d start fund-raising.”
The goal, she added, is to keep the playground downtown.
“They want it to be centrally located for everyone, where everybody could drive there in 5 minutes,” she said.
City-owned lots are being eyed to house the playground, to cover its use under the city’s liability insurance policy.
Mayor Gale Cherry said one site that may be available is the property behind the Railroad Museum across from Big Springs Park.
The playground committee, formed as an offshoot of a planning committee that emerged from a May community forum, is being chaired by Sue Ellen Claggett.
Anyone interested in joining the committee can contact Claggett or City Hall.
During the committee’s Sept. 24 meeting, members split into subcommittees for equipment research, fund-raising and other areas.
A subcommittee of children is also being formed to provide a voice to the playground’s primary user base.
Once the site is identified, funds are raised and the equipment acquired, the playground will be assembled on site, hopefully by a team of volunteers, Prince said.
“We’re going to try to do it as a community build,” she said.
The committee plans to reconvene this month to continue the planning process.
