'The Ground Talks' At New Playground In Tampa

Nine-year-old Dayron Fernandez was like a kid with a new toy this morning, skipping from one playground apparatus to the next at Al Lopez Park. Well, actually, he was a kid with a new toy.

The new playground officially opens today. The $325,000 facility, paid for out of the park improvement fund and the community investment tax, takes the place of the nearly 20-year-old wooden structure that had fallen into disrepair.

Dayron was at the playground with a relative this morning and was the only child in the yard while city workers laid sod all around the mulched grounds. Dayron climbed on the big red rope pyramid and over a massive green and blue jungle gym. He didn't speak much English, but when asked which one was his favorite, he pointed to the jungle gym. Then, he climbed.

"It's a community design," said Cathie Schanz, spokeswoman with the Tampa Parks and Recreation Department.

"We met with the kids in our after-school program at the park and some community members" before settling on what to include, she said.

The result was a menagerie of playground equipment, including swings, climbing structures and a rock wall. There are also two canopied areas with picnic tables for parents to sit, relax in the shade and watch the kids.

Al Lopez Park, situated between Himes Avenue and North Dale Mabry Highway south of Hillsborough Avenue, is one of the city's most heavily used parks. Events are staged there all the time and the playground serves more than just the children in the community, Schanz said.

About 100 children are part of the after-school program and thousands more attend events and go there on weekends to play, Schanz said. The new interactive playground came out of their imaginations, she said.

Besides the equipment, there is an electronic piano keyboard built into the mat in one corner of the yard where tunes can be played by stomping down on keys. Nearby is a hopscotch area with the same technology. When someone lands on a number, that number is announced on a nearby speaker.

"It's pretty cool," Schanz said. "It's unique. It's the only one in the state where the ground talks."