SACRAMENTO-

The community’s effort to rebuild a popular playground after an arson fire got a boost  with a $50,000 unnamed donation.

The City of Sacramento has scheduled an event at the site of a new playground to announce the organization that chipped in the cash.

$200,000 has already been raised from donations and another $200,000 in supplies and labor has been received.  The city has allocated $680,000 to rebuild the 13,000 square foot playground.

Work has already begun thanks to skilled volunteers who are doing concrete work and drilling holes for over 300 posts that will be installed.  Granite Construction and Teichert Construction have donated labor and heavy equipment to the effort.

2,000 community volunteers are still needed on the week of June 4 to erect the playground structure.  Tools are also needed.  The steering committee that is organizing the construction says child care will be available and some of the city’s most well-known restaurants will be donating food for the volunteers.

SACRAMENTO-

In this iconic park nestled in this East Sacramento neighborhood, a beacon of childhood memories is being dismantled.

“Today is is the saddest part of the whole build process is that they are actually taking down what’s left of the old playground,” said Steve Swindle, a member of the Rebuild McKinley committee.

This isn’t happening because of progress, or to make way for something else, but because it was torched last year in an act of arson, and act struck at the heart of this community. Almost immediately, the community responded and began raising money, forming a plan and putting it into motion.

“It’s going to be a wonderful playground,it’s going to be uniquely Sacramento,and there will be nothing like it anywhere in the world,” Swindle said.

The playground will be rebuilt this summer starting on June 4.

One element from Play by Design, LLC’s designs for McKinley Park’s playground.

EAST SAC-

Last weekend’s warm weather may have reminded some in East Sac their playground in McKinley Park still needs to be rebuilt.

Over the last week, community members have left their comments about blueprints published by the designer, Play by Design, LLC. Take a look at the designs here. The theme of the structures reflects the history and surroundings of East Sacramento, and Sacramento in general.

Now those comments will be taken into considered by the Rebuild McKinley Steering Committee and given to the designer, then a more realistic rendering of the new playground will be completed.

The large wood structure at the playground in the center of McKinley Park caught fire at the end of July. The playground was originally built in 1994 after the community spent a year getting funding and volunteers to build it.

Next month, all remnants of the charred playground will be removed. The city has gotten some calls from people who want to purchase pieces of the old playground, they are currently deciding how to handle those requests.

There are tight deadlines with the removal and design approval, ahead of the June 4-9 rebuild. The entire community is invited to volunteer for the six-day rebuild.

For more information on the designs, how to volunteer, and how you can donate to the project, click on RebuildMcKinley.com.

SACRAMENTO-

Fire tore through Sacramento’s beloved McKinley Park playground last summer and since then, the city has been taking suggestions from the community for how the rebuilt playground should look.

Designs and ideas flooded in from children and adults alike.

After considering all the ideas and putting them together, the new playground’s designer has released a preliminary blueprint of what it will look like.

To see the blueprint and for more information about the project, click here.

McKinley Park Playground, July 2012

SACRAMENTO-

It was a place parents took their kids to play, but in July the popular McKinley Park playground was burned to a crisp. Now, children are being asked to weigh in on ideas for how to re-build it.

“I want it to be the same because I really love it,” said Ava, a first grader.

Ava and other kids were given the chance to offer their ideas to playground planners before the preliminary design is displayed Thursday night at the Clunie Community Center.

Drawings from elementary school kids at Caleb Greenwood Elementary school will be taken into consideration for the new design. So far these kids have their sights set on something big.

“I would like to see a tiger that’s fake, you know like the skeleton of a dinosaur. I would like to see something like that,” another child told FOX40.

The new playground is scheduled to be built in June.

Meanwhile, investigators with Sacramento City Fire say the official cause of the fire is still undetermined. It is possible the fire was not arson, and they told FOX40 they are currently not looking for suspects.

SACRAMENTO—

The Sacramento City Council says yes to financing a plan that would re-build the popular playground at McKinley Park.

The original estimate was almost $690,000. Some of that money will come from donations and from insurance settlements

Nothing is left of the play-scape after arsonist burned it down in July.

A draft of the plans calls for sprinklers and security lights.

According to the city, this is how that money will be used:

$400,000 for construction

$100,000 for rubberized surface

$100,000 for design and administration

$100,000 for installation

$40,000 unforeseen changes