Playground project resumes

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 7/1/20

A $150,000 member item from the late NYS Sen. William Larkin is being used to build a completely new playground at the Cluett Schantz Park in Milton.

The project began in 2019 but had to stop due …

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Playground project resumes

Posted

A $150,000 member item from the late NYS Sen. William Larkin is being used to build a completely new playground at the Cluett Schantz Park in Milton.

The project began in 2019 but had to stop due to the onset of winter. Last week the project got back underway and it is expected to be finished in the near future.

Last Saturday Supervisor Al Lanzetta described what is left to complete.

“We still have ten holes to drill wherever you see the X and tomorrow we’ll be working all day,” he said. “I think because of the covid-19 a lot of volunteers decided not to come but we’re going to have mulch and padding here.”

The new playground equipment, which was purchased from Play and Park Structures out of Chattanooga, Tennessee, is both ADA compliant and wheel chair accessible.

Park Manager Tom Schroeder said the old playground that is being replaced was originally erected in the mid 1980s by the local Marlborough UNICO chapter.

“It kind of wore out or exceeded its limitations by 2020, so we had to put a new one in,” he said.

Schroeder said the playground is used quite often.

“I see people here year round and I see a lot of grandparents bringing their grandchildren here,” he said.

Shawn Bolinger, of Champion Recreation, is overseeing the construction of the playground.

“This is a larger size playground. Usually, you have one structure but what you’ve got here is a structure for 2 to 5 and a structure for 5 to 12,” he said. “Typically, towns like this don’t have such a large structure so it’s a really good thing that they’ve got what they’ve got here.”

Bolinger said having members of the community pitch in gives them a stake in the project.

“It gives them a little peace of mind that they’ve contributed to this,” he said.

Supervisor Lanzetta provided a list of the additional volunteers who have worked on the project: Cindy Lanzetta, Steven, Brianna and Dave Gilman, Vladimir Kotlyarevsky, Desire DiMichele, Maja Rodriguez, Ken Sowers, Justin Wilooxson and a generous donation of a dumpster from La Mela’s Sanitation.