Eden Prairie’s reputation for fine parks may be further enhanced by a new addition to Miller Park. The City, with the fundraising help from an Eden Prairie family, is looking to put in a barrier-free play area in place of an older section of the Miller Park tot lot.  Barrier-free playgrounds are relatively rare in Minnesota– the type of park that takes accessibility a step beyond what is required by law.

 “This playground just takes it to a whole other level,” said Mike Garvin, whose family has pledged $100,000 to pay for the installation of the barrier-free equipment.

To understand the need and the joy that could come from a barrier- free park, one need only meet Garvin’s five-year-old daughter Ashley.

Ashley has cerebral palsy-- she cannot  walk, or sit up. Ashley can’t sit in the swing, “and she loves to swing,” noted Garvin because she has no trunk control she would slide out of a the typical plastic swings found in a playground. To take Ashley down a slide, Garvin must carry her up himself. With a barrier –free playground, the entire play area is coated in a rubber surface. The surface would lead up to slides via a ramp, so that strollers or wheelchairs could easily be pushed up to equipment. Additionally such playgrounds could include play equipment that someone in a wheelchair could roll under to use.

Then, few years ago,  traveling, the Garvin family saw one of the free playgrounds.

 “Every part of the playground was assessable by wheelchair,” he noted.

It offered all sorts of other features that made it all encompassing for any child with a disability --“it was really cool,” he added.

Garvin approached the City about having such a playground in Eden Prairie.

As it turns out, the first phase of the Miller Park's play area is do for reconstruction this year. The area currently has mostly wood chips and a number of older pieces of wooden play equipment.

Eden Prairie's Parks and Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer said the new phase of Miller Park will be a  “unique piece of play structure.”

“As far as we know there really isn’t one around that’s like this.”

The park will  be a destination that people will drive to and want to use, he added.

“Every single facet of the playground is assessable by anybody, and that’s the point of it,” noted Garvin.

From the city’s perspective, Lotthammer added, it’s the fundraising component that takes it to the next level.

“We wouldn’t have been able on our own with the money we had budgeted to afford to go to this next level.”

Garvin and his family are pledging their own funding through the Tom and Kathy Miller Family Foundation. They plan to hold fundraising events later this summer.

Lotthammer noted they expect to go out for bid for phase one of the Miller Park work, at end of July, early August.

At that point, construction may start either in fall or early spring next year, he said.

The playground

Barrier free playgrounds increase the access for all children. The entire area is coated in a rubber surface that is easy to wheel things on.

Lotthammer said their intent is to come up with equipment that children won’t have to get out of a wheelchair to get to the second level--- to be able to have a similar experience as kids out of a wheelchair, he said.

In addition to those in wheelchairs getting more use out of the equipment, those people with kids in strollers make better use of it and are more able to get to areas of the playground, Lotthammer noted. Additionally it helps those with crutches or those who have other mobility issues.

 “By using more of this poured in place rubberized surface it becomes more assessable for everybody and more enjoyable then for everybody.”

Those interested in contributing to Miller Park changes can contact Garvin at his office at 952.345.7844.