One of our readers noticed that the swing set in Upper Kinnear Park has been taken down. Concerned that the city might not put the set back together, Nicole B. wrote,
Street parking just north of the swing set at Kinnear Parking is off limits today. I assumed it was for street cleaning. This morning I noticed the swing set was taken apart and down and a bulldozer moving dirt around. I sure hope they are just prepping for spring with new dirt and sand and not getting rid of the swing set for good.
(Photo courtesy of ryanobjc via Flickr).
According to Pam Alspaugh, Parks Landscape Architect, the city is replacing the old swing set with a new 10-foot set and changing out the sand underneath it for wood chips (or “wood fiber safety surfacing”) in order to comply with playground equipment safety standards. Parks and Recreation said they’ve been planing the replacement for a while, and regret not informing the community sooner.
As for how long the project will take, Pam says Kinnear Park will should have a newer, safer swing set soon.
It shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks, depending on how fast we can get the safety surfacing delivered. It is a 10′ high swing, because we knew the community wouldn’t want a smaller one.
(Thanks to Nicole B. for the tip!)
Update 2/11/2010: Parks and Recreation says the new swing set should be installed and open for use by Friday, February 26.