Piccoli: Nice Juniata playground with a wading pool bonus

Playground: Piccoli

Location: Cayuga St. and Castor Ave.

Date visited: 8/4/11

Equipment:

• Little-kid play area in its own fenced-in area. Includes smallish platform-style playset with steps and 2 ladders (including a bigger-than-average quarter-barrel), "spaceship" with central ladder entry, free-standing tall metal turning slide that gave a particularly good ride, a bucket swing (1 missing), and 2 non-functioning "hobby horses" (too stiff)
• Bigger-kid play area (smallish): platform-style with 3 ladders, 2 slides (metal straight, plastic turning-style), and a set of monkey bars. Nearby are 8 (!) strap swings
• In between the two play areas is a large sprinkler/6-inch-deep wading pool (20-foot wide pool with a central sprinkler pole and one seal sprayer on the edge (another was broken)).

Ages:1-1/2 to 8 years

Surface: rubberized (worn) around play areas

Shade(0-3): 0

Water: Y (sprinkler/wading pool)

Other: Rec center, pool, baseball field

Access: rec center hours = 9 AM-10:30 PM in summer, 2-10:30 PM otherwise.

Impressions: Nice spread-out zone, and the wading pool is a big plus (though I might be biased by the fact that my daughter was super-into rollicking in shallow water on the day we visited). Equipment is a bit worn but fine -- nothing particularly novel, but good standard equipment (somewhat better offerings for smaller kids than bigger kids).

Overall rating: 7

Ferko: Quite extensive playground in a massive park in Juniata

Playground: Ferko playground and sprayground

Location: Cayuga St. and J St.

Date visited: 8/4/11

Equipment:

• Big rambly platform-style playset with multiple stations connected by bridges (or, in one case, raised stepping stools). Lots of ladders (maybe 8?), including two "submarine-style" where you climb up through a 360-degree ladder to a platform above and a few other novel types (including one that twists 180-degrees along its length). Has 1 tall turning slide and 3 small slides, and a set of monkey-bar loops that follows a quarter-circle bend.
• Swings in a separate zone -- 3 strap swings and 2 bucket swings (1 seemed broken)

Ages: 1-1/2 to 9 years old

Surface: rubberized around play area

Shade(0-3): 2

Water: Y (colorful sprayground)

Other: Rec center, tree-filled park, ballfield, sprayground (not on when visited at 11:30 AM on a summer Thursday)

Access: surrounded by low fence, but probably open at all times (though presumably only dawn-to-dusk allowed).

Impressions: The playground in the middle of a very large park zone (at least 6 blocks long) and that plus the effect of the multiple stations in the play equipment makes for very good aesthetics. The equipment itself is pretty extensive with a few novel features, but is showing quite a lot of wear. The sprayground seems quite new and is a major plus when it's on (it wasn't when we visited).

Overall rating: 8