New playground part of the Narrows improvement efforts

Even with the cold weather, children who live in the Narrows had another reason to get outside in the past few months.

A new playground, constructed near the neighborhood pool, was constructed in November and immediately drew out families. The playground is one of many neighborhood improvement ideas that have been discussed over the last several years, said homeowners association vice president David Nowak, but never got underway.

“I’ve been told that literally over the last eight or nine years, that the board was trying to do something that would improve the neighborhood,” said Nowak, who moved to the Narrows four years ago and joined the homeowners association after encouragement from neighbors.

He started to enlist the help of families in the neighborhood, asking around about what they would like to see in a playground in the neighborhood. While Nowak’s daughter is almost 18, he said he knew there were young families who could get a lot of use out of a neighborhood playground.

The response was immediately positive, Nowak said, because they “want their kids to get outside.” 

“When you reach out to people and ask for their help, it’s amazing what sort of response you’d get,” Nowak said.

He gathered ideas for a playground from families and started to do research. After reaching out to the cities of Birmingham and Hoover, he came away with a few company recommendations, received playground proposals and chose to go with Fort Payne-based J.A. Dawson. 

They met on the site, discussed a few options, and the project was underway, Nowak said. As he discussed materials and other technical details of the project, they decided on a space that could suit children ages 2-12, Nowak said.

“There’s so much science [behind the construction]. They look at things called the ‘playability factor,’” Nowak said, noting that includes how many items there are, the age range that can play, the size and the number of different elements.

The blue and green structure, which sits at the front of the neighborhood, includes learning items such as numbers, things that make sound, a seating area under the playground, plenty of things that move and the typical slide and climbing elements.

Once a plan was created for the playground, Nowak said he wanted to reach out and getting neighbors more involved. He asked for whoever wanted to contribute financially, to donate to the project. They easily funded the playground, he said.

“That part I thought was pretty good,” Nowak said. “Neighbors coming together, even people who don’t have kids or grandkids. [They] thought it was positive.”

With nearly 600 homes in The Narrows, Nowak said it’s easy to not know your neighbors. 

The community project gave a mutual goal that sparked conversation on the neighborhood Facebook page and in person, he said.

“With people making a contribution and being actively involved, it’s brought a lot of the neighborhood together for something positive,” Nowak said.

The playground took five days to construct, once all the equipment was on site, and families were playing on it as soon as it opened, Nowak said.

“People were keeping an eye on it closely,” he said.