DES MOINES, Iowa -- A fishing themed playground park along the Des Moines Riverwalk officially opens Friday.
The Rotary Riverwalk Park is located next to the Center Street Dam. It’s one of nine focal points that have been added along the Riverwalk since its creation. The playground includes a 65-foot long fishing pole with a 12-foot wide bobber at the end.
“I don`t believe there is any other park in America or maybe even the world like this,” said John Bouslog with the Rotary Club. “That`s why we wanted something unique and something special for our families of central Iowa. So that`s why we think this is a great gift to the city.”
Ten local rotary clubs came together to fund this $500,000 park. Officials are celebrating Friday at noon with a ribbon cutting.
RALPH
Nice park, nice fishing pole…..wait…fishing isn’t allowed in the river anymore. Makes perfect since….
Fred Pherlps (@FredPherlps)
So, to appease the cubicle dwellers of downtown Des Moines, they banned fishing, but you can take your family to the park and play on a giant fishing pole…
Welcome to Des Moines, the special kind of stupid.
SMH
Enhances the river walk, play area for children and wait for it…privately funded.
Fred Pherlps (@FredPherlps)
The river is a public resource, the city has no right telling anyone they can not fish in the river.
Statistical Anomaly
$500,000 for four swings sounds like a great bargain.
Fred Pherlps (@FredPherlps)
you can figure half the costs of such projects are wasted on needless administration and consultants.
RS
Great use of money! Except the city was just throwing the homeless off the river just a couple of months ago. Yup, the rotary clubs have their priorities nice and straight!
Lindsay A
The design is outstanding! But $500,000?!? It would seem that for that amount of money it could’ve been more appealing to kids! Four swings and some foam flooring isn’t terribly exciting. I wonder if they considered a shallow wading pool, and some sprinklers in place of the swings. And it would still be just as visually pleasing in the off-season.