Volunteers gather at the arch of Project Playground during the first day of the community rebuilt, Aug. 8, 2018. (Alex McCarthy | Juneau Empire)

Volunteers gather at the arch of Project Playground during the first day of the community rebuilt, Aug. 8, 2018. (Alex McCarthy | Juneau Empire)

Project Playground to reopen

Event planned for next Saturday

For the first time since it burnt down in April of 2017, children will play at Project Playground.

The Twin Lakes playground has been fully rebuilt and will hold its grand reopening next Saturday at noon. The City and Borough of Juneau Parks and Recreation Department and the Project Playground Steering Committee are celebrating with a free event complete with food, cake and activities from noon-5 p.m. at Twin Lakes.

Parks and Recreation Director George Schaaf, Mayor Ken Koelsch, Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove and Project Playground Steering Committe Chair Mike Goldstein will give short speeches starting at noon. Playground time starts at 12:45 p.m., and cake will be served at 2:30 p.m.

Food venders and activities are available the whole time. Parking is at the Twin Lakes parking lot, with overflow parking along Glacier Highway and at the Juneau Public Health Center across the street.

A community effort helped raise the playground back from the ashes of its 2017 fire. Only the park’s original entryway remained after children played with fire in the playground, sparking the blaze.

Private donations and CBJ money helped fund the new playground, which will include additions to the old playground like slides, two 30-foot ziplines, a small artificial turf field and a poured-in-place play surface.

More in Home

The Wrangell shoreline with about two dozen buildings visible, including a Russian Orthodox church, before the U.S. Army bombardment in 1869. (Alaska State Library, U.S. Army Infantry Brigade photo collection)
Army will issue January apology for 1869 bombardment of Wrangell

Ceremony will be the third by military to Southeast Alaska communities in recent months.

Lightering boats return to their ships in Eastern Channel in Sitka on June 7, 2022. (James Poulson/Sitka Sentinel)
Sitka OKs another cruise ship petition for signature drive

Group seeks 300K annual and 4,500 daily visitor limits, and one or more days with no large ships.

Juneau Board of Education members vote during an online meeting Tuesday to extend a free student breakfast program during the second half of the school year. (Screenshot from Juneau Board of Education meeting on Zoom)
Extending free student breakfast program until end of school year OK’d by school board

Officials express concern about continuing program in future years without community funding.

Dozens of residents pack into a Juneau Assembly meeting at City Hall on Monday night, where a proposal that would require property owners in flood-vulnerable areas to pay thousands of dollars apiece for the installation of protective flood barriers was discussed. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Assembly OKs lowering flood barrier payment for property owners to about $6,300 rather than $8,000

Amended ordinance makes city pay higher end of 60/40 split, rather than even share.

Juneau City Manager Katie Koester (left) and Mayor Beth Weldon (right) meet with residents affected by glacial outburst flooding during a break in a Juneau Assembly meeting Monday night at City Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Juneau’s mayor gets an award, city manager gets a raise

Beth Weldon gets lifetime Alaska Municipal League honor; Katie Koester gets bonus, retroactive pay hike.

The Holiday Cup has been a community favorite event for years. This 2014 photo shows the Jolly Saint Kicks and Reigning Snowballs players in action. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)
Holiday Cup soccer action brings community spirit to the pitch

Every Christmas name imaginable heads a cast of futbol characters starting Wednesday.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy (left) talks with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and local leaders during an Aug. 7 visit to a Mendenhall Valley neighborhood hit by record flooding. (Photo provided by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office)
Dunleavy to Trump: Give us Mendenhall Lake; nix feds’ control of statewide land, wildlife, tribal issues

Governor asks president-elect for Alaska-specific executive order on dozens of policy actions.

A family ice skates and perfects their hockey prowess on Mendenhall Lake, below Mendenhall Glacier, outside of Juneau, Alaska, Nov. 24, 2024. The state’s capital, a popular cruise port in summer, becomes a bargain-seeker’s base for skiing, skating, hiking and glacier-gazing in the winter off-season. (Christopher S. Miller/The New York Times)
NY Times: Juneau becomes a deal-seeker’s base for skiing, skating, hiking and glacier-gazing in winter

Newspaper’s “Frugal Traveler” columnist writes about winter side of summer cruise destination.

Members of the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears girls and boys basketball teams pose above and below the new signage and plaque for the George Houston Gymnasium on Monday. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)
George Houston Gymnasium adds another touch of class

Second phase of renaming honor for former coach brings in more red.

Most Read