New shelters at Leawood City Park and playgrounds at Tomahawk Park got unanimous approval Monday from the Leawood City Council.
The new fixtures will update structures that are decades old, said Chris Claxton, director of city parks, recreation and cultural arts.
At Leawood City Park, 10601 Lee Blvd., the east and west shelters are to be torn down and replaced in what will be about a $1.2 million project.
Two shelters at Leawood City Park will be replaced
The west shelter, known as the “Lion’s” shelter, is about 50 years old, Claxton said.
It currently has a picnic shelter building that shares a roof with a concession stand and restroom.
The replacement will be two independent buildings without the shared roof, and the two grills will be replaced with one.
The city added a restroom to the east shelter in 1997. The east shelter is actually two separate picnic shelters with four grills.
Its replacement will be a shelter with a separate restroom building and one grill. Restrooms at both, which are near the park’s all-inclusive playground, will have adult changing stations.
Playground at Tomahawk Park to be renovated
Tomahawk Park, often called the “blue park,” will get a color makeover to purple and lime green with its new playground equipment.
The park, south of 119th Street and west of Mission Road, is the oldest playground in the city’s park system at more than two decades old, Claxton said.
The original playground was designed for two- to five-year-olds. It will be replaced by two playgrounds – one for two- to five-year-olds and the other for six- to twelve-year-olds.
Most equipment is new but Claxton said the city will keep the bucket swings for young children.
The change comes with a reconfigured and somewhat larger play area with a new six-foot sidewalk. The current circular sidewalk would be eliminated.
An existing small shelter at the park will be replaced and a larger, reservable one will be added. Also, an existing memorial to Vietnam War veterans at the park is being dismantled and the plaque is being moved to a new memorial with a landscape bed on the north side of the park.
New educational signage about native birds and animals also will be added.
The Tomahawk Park project is about $700,000, with the Leawood Foundation working to raise $150,000, Claxton said.
The Tomahawk work is expected to be done this fall, but the Leawood City Park shelters will take until spring of 2025 because of effort to work around soccer season and Johnson County Wastewater construction.
