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New Playground Set for Edison Park, But Plan To Honor Blackhawks on Ice

By Heather Cherone | February 24, 2015 5:19am
 Edison Park Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melissa McIntyre-Panizzi, (r.), and Maria Stone from Friends of the Parks, shown here in 2012, discuss the need to replace the outdated equipment outside the Edison Park fieldhouse.
Edison Park Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melissa McIntyre-Panizzi, (r.), and Maria Stone from Friends of the Parks, shown here in 2012, discuss the need to replace the outdated equipment outside the Edison Park fieldhouse.
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DNAinfo/Heather Cherone

EDISON PARK — The rotted, rusted, drab and dangerous playlot outside the Edison Park field house will be transformed into a state-of-the-art playground, city officials said Monday.

But the playground won't be named for Chicago Blackhawks CEO John McDonough, who grew up in Edison Park, or be a shrine to the Stanley Cup-winning team, officials said.

Edison Park — along with Ashmore Playlot Park at 4807 W. Gunnison St. in Forest Glen — won all new equipment through the Park District's Chicago Plays! Playground Renovation program.

The two Far Northwest Side parks are among 77 parks that will be renovated in 2015, officials said.

In 2012, Chicago Park District officials shot down a plan to renovate the park and name it after McDonough, citing a policy that prohibits parks and playgrounds from being named after people until at least a year after they die.

Chicago Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said Monday there were no plans for the Blackhawks to be involved in the renovation of the Edison Park playlot, 6755 N. Northwest Highway.

Edison Park Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melissa McIntyre-Panizzi did not return phone and email messages Monday.

Panizzi had said McDonough had agreed to help raise $500,000 to renovate the playlot, in part by offering donors a chance to fly with the Blackhawks to an away game on the team’s plane and sit with him in the president’s box during a game at the United Center, Panizzi said.

Chicago Plays plans to renovate 325 playgrounds throughout the city over the next five years, officials said. Each park gets about $125,000 in new equipment, officials said.

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