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Biggest Pieces of Gathering Place Playground Arrive on Site

Matt Trotter
/
KWGS

A caravan of trucks with a police escort delivered Wednesday the major pieces of the playground to A Gathering Place for Tulsa.

Two metal frames and four wooden towers — some roughly five stories tall — made the trip from the east Tulsa warehouse they’ve been at for the past year.

Before that, they were being made in Germany by play equipment firm Richter Spielgerate. Julian Richter said he’s proud to finally see the structures at the park.

"Our company is a small company. We are based in a small village with mostly handicraft guys working there — carpenters, timber workers — so, for us, these big projects are a real challenge," Richter said.

"The towers are a key element. We've got to get them in now. We've got to get them assembled, because a lot of the fine rock work and sidewalk work has to begin around those areas," said Gathering Place Director Jeff Stava.

Cranes will be used to place the towers at the Chapman Adventure Playground, and more truckloads of playground equipment will come in over the next several weeks.

"We have about three or four, maybe five semi-truck loads full of equipment that's at the east Tulsa warehouse that's coming to the site, too, to start assembling here over the next about a month and a half," said Gathering Place Director Jeff Stava. "A lot of work in the playground going on right now."

The Chapman Adventure Playground accounts for 10 to 15 percent of the park’s budget.

Stava said recent warm weather has kept construction of the park on track, though the early bloom it’s caused has tree planting a bit behind schedule.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.