The county has closed the playground at the St.
George Island
Commissioner Pinki Jackel said this is the second time a
child has been injured at the playground this summer, so now the board is
working on a plan to replace the current metal playground with something a bit
more kid friendly, possibly made out of wood or PVC.
The metal structure was repaired about two years ago, but
the salt air guarantees that it will continue to deteriorate.
County parks director Fonda Davis said there is a playground
in a wooden ship motif that would make a good replacement, but it is pricey –
coming in at about 28 thousand dollars.
Lois Swoboda, who does insect control in the county,
recommended against wood because she says she is seeing an explosion in the
venomous brown widow spider population on the island – and that species loves
wood.
At this point the board is just trying to figure out how it
will pay for new playground equipment.
The county does have a fund of Tourist Development Money
that could be used except it has mostly been earmarked for work at the Armory
in Apalachicola .
The board did ask its staff to see if it could find up to 20
thousand dollars in the fund to replace the St. George
Island
They also agreed to inspect all of the other county owned
playgrounds to make sure that they are safe for children.
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3 comments:
my kids have played on this playground a thousand times!!! they will be devastated that it is closed!! hope its replaced soon!!!
I am assuming this is the park at the lighthouse. This is the only playground I know of on the island. ???
Yes - this is the playground at the lighthouse park. And I know the county is working to get everything open as soon as possible.
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