Us
Print
E-mail
Rate
A place to play
 |
| Tom Nicol pieces together parts of a new playground set at Five Points Park Tuesday afternoon. JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter |
Five Points Park gets new look and playground equipment.
By TONY BRITT
tbritt@lakecityreporter.com
The Five Points Park will be closed for several days as county work crews give the park’s playground area a face-lift by installing new playground equipment.
Monday afternoon, county crews began removing the playground equipment which had been at the park for more than 20 years.
“It’s an old park that’s been here for years and we’re trying to renovate some of the old playground equipment because of safety issues and old, wore-out equipment,” said Clint Pittman, director of Columbia County Landscape and Parks. “The old playground equipment is not up to standards for playground equipment now. A lot of those pieces were rusted out and had several components broken. Due to the safety hazards we wanted to remove them and put something better in for the children.”
The park, located west of Five Points Elementary School, is roughly 2 acres is size and contains a pavilion, playground area, barbecue grills, a picnic area and basketball courts.
As part of the park’s renovation project, county work crews have repaired the park’s picnic tables, painted and cleaned the pavilion and relocated several picnic tables that were in the open.
“We’ll have all new fencing around the parking area which will match all the other parks in the county,” Pittman said. “We’re also renovating some of the swings out here and adding a whole new play unit to cover the old ones that we took out.”
Basketball courts at the park, which were missing rims or had damaged backboards, will be replaced and repainted as part of the project.
Certified playground equipment installers have been hired to install the new playground equipment at the park. A work crew from John Fitzgerald Inc., of Orlando, began installing the new playground equipment Tuesday.
The crew’s first installation was to assemble a multi-purpose unit with multiple slides, a crawl-through tube, climbers and monkey-bar attachments.
“It’s a big unit that will replace the two or three smaller units we took out,” Pittman said, estimating the older playground equipment was 25-30 years old.
Work crews have tried to minimize their impact on the environment and have recycled all the metal used on the old playground equipment.
In addition, the project will incorporate GEO-Tech woodfiber as the base material placed around the new playground equipment.
“It’s woodfiber that’s cut to a certain size so that it’s ADA (American Disabilities Act) compliant,” Pittman said. “There will be an entry ramp coming off the parking lot so the park is ADA accessible.”
Pittman said the park may re-open as soon as next week.
“The park is probably going to be closed another week,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to open it up by the end of next week.”
Monday afternoon, county crews began removing the playground equipment which had been at the park for more than 20 years.
“It’s an old park that’s been here for years and we’re trying to renovate some of the old playground equipment because of safety issues and old, wore-out equipment,” said Clint Pittman, director of Columbia County Landscape and Parks. “The old playground equipment is not up to standards for playground equipment now. A lot of those pieces were rusted out and had several components broken. Due to the safety hazards we wanted to remove them and put something better in for the children.”
The park, located west of Five Points Elementary School, is roughly 2 acres is size and contains a pavilion, playground area, barbecue grills, a picnic area and basketball courts.
As part of the park’s renovation project, county work crews have repaired the park’s picnic tables, painted and cleaned the pavilion and relocated several picnic tables that were in the open.
“We’ll have all new fencing around the parking area which will match all the other parks in the county,” Pittman said. “We’re also renovating some of the swings out here and adding a whole new play unit to cover the old ones that we took out.”
Basketball courts at the park, which were missing rims or had damaged backboards, will be replaced and repainted as part of the project.
Certified playground equipment installers have been hired to install the new playground equipment at the park. A work crew from John Fitzgerald Inc., of Orlando, began installing the new playground equipment Tuesday.
The crew’s first installation was to assemble a multi-purpose unit with multiple slides, a crawl-through tube, climbers and monkey-bar attachments.
“It’s a big unit that will replace the two or three smaller units we took out,” Pittman said, estimating the older playground equipment was 25-30 years old.
Work crews have tried to minimize their impact on the environment and have recycled all the metal used on the old playground equipment.
In addition, the project will incorporate GEO-Tech woodfiber as the base material placed around the new playground equipment.
“It’s woodfiber that’s cut to a certain size so that it’s ADA (American Disabilities Act) compliant,” Pittman said. “There will be an entry ramp coming off the parking lot so the park is ADA accessible.”
Pittman said the park may re-open as soon as next week.
“The park is probably going to be closed another week,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to open it up by the end of next week.”
 |
||
| ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ divides neighbors |
skater mom wrote on Oct 8, 2008 8:39 AM: