For more than a year, the Saxonburg Area Rotary Club has been working toward a goal of building a new playground in Saxonburg.

At a borough council meeting on Tuesday night, April 16, Rotary director Karen Antoszyk revealed the group had considered taking the playground idea in a new direction. During Tuesday’s meeting, Antoszyk floated the idea of the Rotary building several small playgrounds across the borough, which she dubbed “spot locations,” instead of one large playground.

“Each location for this playground would involve individual pieces of playground equipment,” Antoszyk said. “So, on that location it would be one or two pieces, depending on what seems to fit that area.”

The Rotary came to this idea because, according to Antoszyk, they had been considering several locations for one large playground, and all of them had drawbacks.

One of the locations proposed for these “spot playgrounds” is a 0.18-acre parcel located on West Main Street, between Kelly’s Family Restaurant and Saxonburg Memorial Church. This parcel is currently owned by the borough, and once housed a water tower.

Antoszyk sought permission from council to allow the Rotary to move forward with planning for that piece of property. While no formal vote was taken at Tuesday’s council meeting, borough council chairman Aaron Piper said he had no objections to the idea of using the old water tower parcel for a playground.

“It sounds like a fabulous idea,” Piper said. “I would like to see how those plans progress.”

Other possible locations for “spot playgrounds” are behind the South Butler Community Library, at Roebling Park on Rebecca Street and near the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company grounds.

“Most playgrounds are built in phases, and that would work well with this idea,” Antoszyk said. “We would complete one spot as a phase and move on to the next.”

Antoszyk told council the borough should not expect to pay for architectural planning or construction. She also said the plan has met with the approval of Michelle Lesniak, director of the library.

“I’ve spoken with Michelle Lesniak,” Antoszyk said. “This is something they are very much in favor of.”