A project to transform the area around the Wellington Amphitheater and Scott’s Place Playground at Wellington’s Town Center is closer to completion, with just a few weeks of work left at the site.

The project will be substantially complete — meaning there are “just a few punch list items” left — by the end of April, Village Manager Jim Barnes said. Scott’s Place Playground, the popular playscape next to the amphitheater, will open at the beginning of May, with the amphitheater opening toward the end of the month, Barnes said.

The 4,000-square-foot expansion of Scott’s Place is part of the larger work on Town Center, an $8.3 million project that also includes more green space for events at the amphitheater, a dedicated food truck area, four new picnic pavilions and a holiday display area between Scott’s Place and the 9/11 Memorial.

The project also reconfigured the parking lot to allow for the changes, essentially moving the green space that used to be between the Wellington Community Center and Village Hall to the south so it is directly next to the amphitheater.

Scott’s Place Playground temporarily closed last July. It’s one of the most popular playgrounds in Wellington and the western communities, in part because its accessibility makes it great for children of all ages. We’ve taken my son there since before he could walk. Scott’s Place is so popular that when I told people last fall that I was starting a blog about Wellington, one of the questions I kept getting was, “What’s happening with Scott’s Place?” I was asked that question so frequently that I decided to make it the topic of one of my first blog posts.

The work at Scott’s Place does not include any new equipment. That will happen later, once the rest of the playground equipment needs to be replaced. In the meantime, Wellington will be able to apply for grants to help pay for new equipment, Barnes previously told me.

While the work has been ongoing, Wellington’s Food Truck and Music Series temporarily moved to Village Park on Pierson Road. Starting it January, Wellington moved the events back to Town Center, along the Promenade behind the Community Center and along the Lake Wellington waterfront.

This was the second phase of work on Town Center. A third phase will include planning the redevelopment of the site that includes the Aquatics Complex and the Lake Wellington Professional Centre.

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