by Andrea Bruner, Assistant Managing Editor
Published: Thursday, May 1, 2008

The kids are already calling it the “Spider-Man playground.”

Brightly colored, with black ropes and nets for climbing, the gyroscopic equipment does bear Spider-Man’s colors — red and blue — and loops and curves around at various angles, much like the wall-crawling, webslinging superhero does.

But the “superheroes” in this case would be the Batesville Jaycees, who donated $20,000 to the city for a grant to purchase the equipment. This is the biggest donation the city parks department has received, Parks Director Randy Palmer said.

The total cost of the equipment and installation was $45,500, Mayor Rick Elumbaugh said, with another $7,000 in administration fees, but the city received a $25,000 matching grant from the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

Elumbaugh said the city was very grateful to the Jaycees for their donation. “We’re very fortunate to have a piece of state-of-the-art playground equipment like this in Batesville. …

Local Jaycees donate funds for ‘Spider-Man playgrounds’ | Batesville Daily Guard