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(Mobile, AL){PUBLICATION2} February 18, 2008
RYAN DEZEMBER Staff Reporter Aerobic workout for the PlayStation set? GULF SHORES' MEYER PARK Aerobics for the PlayStation set? By RYAN DEZEMBER Staff Reporter 8Aerobic Councilmen eye electronic toy for Meyer Park GULF SHORES - As part of the ongoing effort to update Meyer Park, a pair of councilmen have pitched a piece of playground equipment that is a far cry from monkey bars, swing sets and seesaws. Named the NEOS, the toy defies conventional description. At 7 feet tall and 15 feet wide, its design resembles four surfboards leaning against a giant boom box. Its function seems closely aligned with "Simon," Milton Bradley's late 1970s electronic memory game - except its scale necessitates an aerobic workout to mash the machine's 16 buttons. The Pennsylvania-based makers of the NEOS, Playworld Systems, describe nine games that can be played on the toy, from contests testing reaction time to others aimed at agility to some in which players make music using the different sounds each button emits when pressed. Councilmen Steve Jones and Joe Garris saw the toy demonstrated at a recent convention for municipal officials and became convinced a NEOS should be in the mix for Meyer Park. The typical menu of rec league sports isn't for everyone and Gulf Shores has tried to expand its offerings for broader appeal, Jones said. The city's new skate park is Exhibit A, he said. A NEOS, targeting the PlayStation crowd, could be Exhibit B. "So many kids now don't get enough exercise. They're sitting around the television working video games," Jones said. "This is yet another step in the same direction to appeal to another segment of kids we might not otherwise reach with our regular sports programs." A NEOS will cost Gulf Shores $26,000. For comparison's sake, the city spent about $20,000 for a small cluster of traditional playground equipment - plastic slides and such - recently installed at Meyer Park. Because bids for all manner of construction work have come in below expectations this year, the city may be able to buy a NEOS with money left over from a larger project, Public Works Director Mark Acreman said. Before Gulf Shores installs one, the city would have to pour a concrete pad measuring about 10 feet by 16 feet and figure out how to power the low-voltage machine. Options for that, Garris said, range from running power from the nearby rest rooms, installing solar panels or even hooking it up to a car battery. And if the city decides the park on East 23rd Avenue isn't the right spot for a NEOS, it can easily be moved elsewhere, Garris said. The councilmen said the machines are rugged, withstanding all sorts of abuse in tests. "They actually took one of these units, submerged it for 30 days, pulled it out of the water, plugged it in and it worked," Jones said. The machines aren't entirely vandal proof: the threat of spray paint looms. But Jones asked his colleagues on Monday to consider the benefits of NEOS ownership. "Rather than focus on the negative aspects and worry about the 2 or 3 percent of knuckleheads that might try to do damage to something like this, we thought it would be something that a large part of the community would embrace and take some pride in," he said. There's no other NEOS in Alabama at the moment, but Jones said Dothan has ordered one and so has the McWane Science Center in Birmingham. During the City Council's meeting last week, elected officials watched a video of kids and adults playing with a NEOS at a Pennsylvania park, praising the amusement and exercise it provides. Afterward Mayor G.W. "Billy" Duke III asked Acreman to figure out how to pay for one and where to put it, and to bring a proposal to the council, which is set to discuss the matter at its 4 p.m. meeting today. ON THE NET NEOS: www.playneos.com CUTLINES: Courtesy of Playworld Systems The Gulf Shores City Council is considering adding a NEOS to Meyer Park. The electronic toy is aimed at getting kids normally content to play video games and watch television to exercise outdoors.
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