UPDATE (Wednesday, Feb. 19): The city of Knoxville said Wednesday it will be meeting with the community next month to discuss plans over dismantling and rebuilding the Fort Kid playground.
This comes a day after a committee of community members who organized to save the Knoxville playground said they received "grave news" from the Knoxville Law Department on Tuesday that its demolition is imminent on or around April 13, 2020.
The committee said it is going to try and schedule a meeting with Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon to discuss the issue in hopes of saving the original Fort Kid from demolition.
"Fort Kid is, and has always been, a community-built playground. The historic playground was designed using the public’s ideas, built with community-raised funds, and erected over five days in 1991 by 2,500 volunteers," the committee said in a press release. "However, the City’s planned demolition has been driven by a small number of public officials and private interests, without public input or community meetings."
Mayor Kincannon responded Wednesday, saying the city is now moving forward with improvement plans to dismantle the original structure and rebuild Fort Kid at the same location.
The city is planning to hold a public meeting on Thursday, March 12 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Knoxville Museum of Art to get feedback and update the community on the future of the park.
“I am a huge supporter of our local parks and Fort Kid has been an asset in our community,” Mayor Kincannon said. “My family has treasured photos of our children at Fort Kid and I want to ensure that future generations have the same opportunity to make memories in that same location. It is unfortunate that the current structure must be dismantled, but we are committed to rebuilding and enhancing connectivity to the neighboring Knoxville Museum of Art.”
Fort Kid is scheduled to close on March 23 -- and the city said it will ask for public input before the final design is put in place. The city said it anticipates re-opening the park by the end of the year.
The well-known community playground near the Sunsphere was built more than 28 years ago, but temporarily closed in November 2018 when a Knox County Health Department inspection revealed a number of structural issues and safety hazards -- such as exposed nails, trip hazards, splintered wooden components, and a decayed retaining wall supporting the play area.
The playground has been in dire need of repairs and upgrades in order to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, which prompted the community to try and rally to save the park by raising the money to fix those problems.
In the summer of 2019, it seemed hopeful the city and community leaders would potentially find a way to save Fort Kid as it stood. Businessman Thomas Boyd announced last June that he would pledge $200,000 toward a public-private collaboration to re-energize and upgrade Fort Kid alongside $300,000 in funding authorized by the city to fix the retaining wall and 'renovate' the area.
A parent who helped build it said that renovation called for demolishing the popular kids area, with no city funds to help rebuild or promise the space would remain a playground.
The committee said, should the city demolish Fort Kid and eventually build a replacement, they believe it would likely be in a smaller area and "will not be Fort Kid as currently known and loved."