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Some of the oldest playground equipment in the Milwaukee County Parks system, installed in 1995, is at Mitchell Airport Park, 4446 S. Logan Ave., but not for long.
After a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, Oct. 14 at 9 a.m. it will be getting some of the newest.
According to a County Parks website for the project, “The new playground equipment will offer some ADA-accessible features and will include play structures for both 5-12 and 2-5-year-old children, swings, and some stand-alone play pieces.
“New resilient play area surfacing will be a combination of poured-in-place (PIP) rubber and engineered wood fiber. The project budget includes the removal of the 1995 playground, and the design and installation of a new playground, as well as corresponding site improvements such as new benches.”
The parks system worked with FAA to reach an agreement in late 2022 ensuring that the park – which is directly across Layton Avenue from the north side of General Mitchell International Airport – complies with FAA regulations.
The park, as required by the agreement, will have, “An aviation theme and educational elements.”
Because of the late-season start to construction and the temperature-dependent nature of some of the work, the new park will not be completed until spring.
The public is invited to the groundbreaking event, which will also include local officials.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
