By DOUGLAS W. MOTLEY
Senior Writer
Crestline held a grand opening of the newest attraction at Lake Gregory Regional Park, their new “destination playground,” which has already attracted great interest and approval from the children in town. They were crawling, climbing and swinging all over the equipment during the entire afternoon and event.
Since this is a County Regional Park, San Bernardino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe and Beahta Davis, the head of County Regional Parks, came to the celebration held in front of the new playground. Members of the Lake Gregory Community Advisory Committee, the president and board members of the Crestline Chamber of Commerce and many community members attended, watching Steve Garcia cut the ribbon.
Eleven-year-old Brendon on the Pyramid Spinner.
The ribbon cutting was scheduled for 4 p.m. so school children could attend the festivities. To make it a fun activity, Mr. Twister was making balloon hats, and there was face painting for the children and free lemonade was offered for everyone from the Crest Forest Senior Citizens Club. The speakers for the event speaker were Dr. Bill Mellinger, pastor of the Crestline First Baptist Church, and Nathan Godwin, general manager of Lake Gregory Regional Park.
This playground has been in the works for years and was part of the original proposal the Lake Gregory Company (LGC) made to the county when applying to manage the park for them. They are thrilled the playground is now up and running, and this dedication ceremony was a very exciting day for them.
“We are so happy to offer this playground for this community and for the visitors to the park,” said Godwin, “and from the responses from the children, already it is a success.”
The new state-of-the-art, ADA-accessible playground design is packed with features that seem to welcome kids and families of all abilities to learn, play and grow together. It has several play structures in the playground. The large primary structure is designed for children ages 5 to 12 and has several integrated play activities. The view from the top of this play structure of the meadow, lake and dam is amazing. The secondary climb structure is lower in height and is designed for those ages 2 to 5 and has great slides. The swing set has toddler seats and a disc swing that can hold several at a time. The Pyramid Spinner has proven to be popular with teens as well and one parent said she thought she saw 20 kids riding on it last week.
Longtime Crestline resident Gil Flores, who heads the Lake Gregory Community Advisory Committee and serves on the Crest Forest Municipal Advisory Council, said he was proud to be a part of the official grand opening of Crestline’s new playground. “It was a lot of hard work, a long time coming, and I’m happy to be a part of it. It’s wonderful!”
The playground is located at 24640 San Moritz Drive next to the San Moritz Meadow on the east end of Lake Gregory. The playground is free; Regional Park parking fees do apply if parking a vehicle. The dog park is in the fenced area next to the playground; dogs are not to be in the playground area for children’s safety and sanitary reasons.
The disc swing has proven to be very popular.
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