Playgrounds nearing completion, village says

Two of the village’s three new playgrounds are open, and the last will be ready to have its equipment installed next week, according to Buildings Superintendent Tom McAleer.

The nature-themed playground at Barrett Park was given priority, as village officials wanted it open in time for the start of the village’s recreation program there on July 1. The equipment and soft rubber surface were in place by then, while plantings and other landscaping work on its perimeter were done while camp was in session, according to Nicole Winter, the program’s director.

Kay Everson Park’s nautical-themed playground equipment was installed in July and opened to the public in early August, although the swings remain closed.

“The sand is being laid down right now,” McAleer said on Tuesday. He said he expected that the swings would be installed by the end of the week.

McAleer said that Arlington Park’s sports-themed playground, which is currently a plot of dirt while village workers build a retaining wall, should have its surface and equipment installed next week. He said the installation would take “a few days” to complete.

Village officials anticipated in April that the playgrounds would be ready by July 1.

The rubber surface at the Barrett and Kay Everson parks’ playgrounds gives noticeably underfoot. It is a big improvement over the woodchips of the previous Barrett Park playground, according to Winter, who said her campers were spared the splinters and other minor injuries that used to be more common.

“We’ve seen a lot less injuries coming to the nurse from things like that,” she said. She added that the playground saw more visitors than past years after her program ended at noon each day, often filling with parents and children shortly afterward.

Marco Nieto, a Flushing, Queens, resident and a member of the village’s pool, sat between the adjacent Kay Everson playground’s large whale and octopus sculptures as his children played nearby.

“These are great,” he said. The kids love ’em, they climb them. They give the kids a sense of imagination, which is nice.”

He said that the new surface, which replaced sand, was safer and “a nice change.”

Mayor Ed Fare said that two more playgrounds are being planned, for Firemen’s Memorial Field and for a spot next to the dog park. McAleer said that the projects would have to go out to bid, but that the same company that designed this summer’s additions, Miracle Recreation Equipment, of Syosset, could be a possibility.