Parks board approves revised Minaka Park playground design, adds shade and enclosed rear tower

The Waukesha City Parks, Recreation and Forestry Board on June 16 approved a revised design and an equipment purchase for a rebuilt Minaka Park playground, directing staff to add a shade canopy and an enclosed rear tower while keeping the project within the department's 2025 capital improvement plan budget. Motion by Jennifer Wallner, second by Alderman Camacho; the motion passed unanimously.

Board context: The project would replace the existing, smaller Minaka playground (discussants described the current footprint as about 3,000 square feet) with a larger, roughly 4,000-square-foot poured-in-place play surface and a multi-component play ensemble sized between the City's Springs and Bethesda playgrounds. Melissa Lipska, parks and forestry operations manager, told the board the equipment purchase under consideration was $117,719 and that the total project budget in the 2025 CIP is $235,000.

Why it matters: Board members and staff said the replacement will add accessible features and a…