RCA Community Park grand opening ceremony took place on July 17

The ribbon has been cut and the playground is officially open.

Tuesday, July 16, Mayor Mark Kruzan along with Parks and Recreation Department Director Mick Renneisen organized a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open a new playground at RCA Community Park.

“A month ago, when we started planning this ceremony, we wondered if we would ever finish this ceremony because it was raining literally all the time,” Renneisen said at the beginning of the ceremony. “A year ago, we wondered if it would ever rain again. Fortunately today, we have a beautiful day.”

People gathered around and some parents and children left “Messy Mania”, a children event organized to help promote the opening of the park, in order to listen to Renneisen speak about the park.

The park was dedicated to Bloomington in 1993. Also, in 1993 Dave Williams began his career at the Parks and Recreations Department and his first project was RCA Community Park. He helped build the first playground that the park ever received.

“This has come full circle, 20 years later, a new playground and Dave was the instigator of that,” Renneisen said.

Parks aren’t built by one person alone though. Mayor Kruzan explained this to the spectators by describing the “four community c’s.”

The first one was “commerce.” The park was originally dedicated by Thompson, one of the largest employeers of the Bloomington community, and was renamed RCA Community Park in 2009. The mayor explained that without commerce things like the park would not be possible.

He also thanked the Community Development Block Grant Program administered by the Housing and Neighborhood Development Program and the City Council for funding it.

The second was “collaboration,” in which he thanked all the various organizations for coming together to make the park possible. Also, by thanking those who helped build the park, putting in hard labor and time, the operation staff.

Third was “condition,” in which he spoke of Renneisen’s comments prior about making the community happy and healthy by providing 40 parks and more than 45 miles of trails to use in Bloomington at people’s leisure.

Finally, “character.”

“The identity of the community is really well reflected by the strength of it’s park systems,” Mayor Kruzan said.

Renneisen and Mayor Kruzan have opened many parks together in the 10 years that the mayor was elected. At each opening ceremony, Renneisen plans something special for the mayor.

In previous park openings, the mayor had to slide down a slide, climb a rock wall, and ride a two person bike with Renneisen.

This year brought a new task.

“Inside of all of us is a kid at heart,” he said. “That why the mayor will have to climb threw a worm hole to get to the ribbon cutting.”

The mayor successfully followed through, and together Renneisen, Kruzan, and some children from the community cut the big red ribbon with an oversized pair of scissors.
 
“We build playgrounds because we like kids and we know kids like to play so playgrounds are a big part of what your Parks and Recreation Department provides,” Renneisen said.