Just in time for the weekend summer solstice festivities, the orange fence is being rolled up and Nome’s Anvil City Square has officially re-opened.
The city road crew—along with the workers from the Parks and Recreation department—officially took down the orange plastic mesh fence, just days shy of one year after it was put up to protect a re-seeding project.
“It’s totally open,” said City Manager Josie Bahnke on Tuesday. “I’ve been informed there have been visitors and locals there taking pictures and playing on the lawn.”
Bahnke said it’s now on to phase two of the square’s renovation. As the fence went up, the old playground and swing sets were taken down. City crews have brought up the grade of the playground’s pad in the square’s northeast corner, making room for a new playground that will be more than twice the size of the one it’s replacing.
Bahnke said the new playground equipment will start being installed by the end of the week.
The new playground equipment, designed by Nome’s own Parks and Rec department alongside Oregon-based Playcraft Systems, is set to include more than 13 components. That includes swings, crawl tubes, and “spring riders” in the shapes of a salmon and a bear.
But Bahnke said there were still some final pieces of floral flair to which others have pledged to attend.
“Some finishing touches still need to take place,” she said. “A lot of the dredge buckets have been reserved by the Nome Preschool Association to plant flowers.”
Anvil City Square is now fully open for everything from picnics to people watching—but Bahnke says it may take crews a bit of time to completely install all the elements of the new playground.
