LEWISTON – For 90 minutes Monday, community activists reclaimed the corner of Maple and Park streets as a neighborhood park.

Children climbed a 6-foot-tall snow monster, sliding down its back. Others shaped the powdery snow into snakes, turtles and ladybugs. Volunteers, including the Salvation Army’s mobile canteen, provided sugary treats – candy, donuts and hot chocolate.

But the first every Visible Community Downtown Winter Carnival was more about pressure on City Hall than wintry fun. Organizers used the event to push the city to make the lot a neighborhood playground once again.

“The message we’re trying to get across is, economic development downtown should involve the park,” said Kate Brennan, a member of the Maine Peoples Alliance and a Visible Community facilitator. “Downtown development and people don’t have to be exclusive of each other. We can have both redevelopment and a place for people to live.”

The city removed the park’s playground equipment in 2004 before demolishing the nearby Ritz Cafe building. That was part of a planned Heritage Initiative that called for building a boulevard through the area.

Neighbors protested, and the city backed off of the boulevard plan. But neighbors and the Visible Community have pressed the city to replace the park’s equipment ever since.

“The best thing about this particular park was that it was good for little children,” said Sister Claire Lepage, Visible Community member. “It’s not like the bigger park, with kids on skateboards or bikes or people playing basketball. This was just right for little children and their mothers.”

The park equipment is in storage. It was purchased with more than $10,000 of donations from Rotarians, the Kiwanis Club, students from St. Dominic Regional High School and the city itself.

The Visible Community is a nonprofit group, consisting of people who live inside and outside Lewiston’s downtown, that has been fighting development in the area.

The event drew state legislators including Lewiston Rep. Margaret Craven and state Sen. Peggy Rotundo as well as city mayoral candidates Normand Rousseau and Larry Gilbert. August Jaccaci, a New Gloucester-based Thomas Jefferson impersonator, gave a short speech in honor of community activism and Presidents Day.