Ribbon cutting completes reopening of renovated Kids Coulee playground in La Crosse’s Myrick Park

Nearly two years after reconstruction began, an old playground is renovated and reopened in La Crosse.

Kids Coulee playground in Myrick Park was dedicated with a ribbon cutting Wednesday.

Around $1,050,000 in funding came from the city, while 15 local businesses and UW-La Crosse’s athletic fund contributed another $150,000 for the three-year renovation project.

The 1994 original Kids Coulee building involved an estimated 3,700 volunteers. Actual construction on the renovations were kicked off at a ceremony in the summer of 2022.

Students from nearby Emerson Elementary School walked as a group to the park on Wednesday to join in the ceremony, and use the play area.

“I know my family has spent a lot of time runnin’ around here,” Mark Schneider, one of the local business owners who helped make the renovation possible, said at Wednesday’s ceremony, “hiding in these little spots, hide and seek, and playing tag and stuff, and it’s just neat to see that this is gonna go on for 30 more years,” said Schneider.

Deputy park director Dan Trussoni said public suggestions for changes to the 30-year-old wooden play area, including a new zip line, were welcomed.

“We asked the community what it was they wanted to see here,” Trussoni said, “and the overwhelming response that we received was they want something that’s going to maintain the existing look and feel that’s made this such a regional draw for the last 30 years.”