Bay City opens its new $1 million inclusive playground at Carroll Park with a free ribbon-cutting Thursday, Oct. 22, and treat bags for kids

BAY CITY, Mich. — Families can try out Bay City’s new inclusive playground at Carroll Park this week, when the city cuts the ribbon on the roughly $1 million project at 4:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22.

The ceremony at the park, 2201 Groveland Road, is free and open to the public, and no registration is required, MLive reported Tuesday. The Bay Area Chamber of Commerce is co-hosting, and the first 150 children to arrive will get a free bag from the Bay Area Community Foundation.

What’s new. The project brought new play equipment, accessible play surfaces and improvements to the area around the playground. It has a larger section for children 5 to 12 and a separate area for children 2 to 5. Among the featured pieces is a cloud-themed climbing net called the VistaSkyway 3. Sinclair Recreation LLC developed the playground with the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and residents.

Who paid. A $500,000 Revitalization and Placemaking grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation covered about half of the cost, and the city paid the rest from municipal resources and other funding, according to MLive.

Saving a shade tree. During construction, crews shifted the layout of the toddler area to avoid cutting down a large tree, so that part of the playground will be shaded, city staff told the advisory committee in early October, according to a Citizen Portal summary of the meeting.

“This project is about more than replacing playground equipment. It’s about creating a space where children of different ages and abilities have opportunities to play, explore, and enjoy the outdoors together,” said Craig Symborski, Bay City’s parks manager.

Part of a bigger push. The city scheduled a groundbreaking at Carroll Park for Aug. 17 and has been adding accessible and sensory play features at other parks, including new toddler and sensory equipment at Wenonah Park, MLive reported then.

Sources:
MLive, “Bay City to celebrate new inclusive playground at Carroll Park with ribbon-cutting ceremony,” Oct. 20, 2026, https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2026/10/bay-city-to-celebrate-new-inclusive-playground-at-carroll-park-with-ribbon-cutting-ceremony.html
Citizen Portal, “Carroll Park playground work under way; toddler area shifted to preserve trees,” Oct. 2, 2026 (summary of a Bay City parks advisory committee meeting), https://citizenportal.ai/articles/10443782/michigan/bay-county/bay-city/carroll-park-playground-work-under-way-toddler-area-shifted-to-preserve-trees
MLive, “Bay City advances inclusive park projects, sets groundbreaking for Carroll Park,” August 2026, https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2026/08/bay-city-advances-inclusive-park-projects-sets-groundbreaking-for-carroll-park.html
Photo: versageek, “Accessible playground equipment.jpg,” July 10, 2012, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Accessible_playground_equipment.jpg

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Tags: Bay City · Things to Do · Carroll Park · Playground · Parks · Families