New Playground for Richard Dubois Park

A yearly playground audit of all playground structures in Warsaw Parks resulted in most equipment having several minor issues — bolts needing tightened and ordering safety surfacing. But the main concern came with the equipment at Richardson Dubois Park on Market Street.

Shawn Gardner, maintenance director, presented the audit report for 2015 during the Warsaw Parks and Recreation board meeting Tuesday.

According to Gardner, the spiral slide  has four priority safety hazards. The slide was installed in 1973 with no parts available for update or making it compliant. The other equipment was installed in the late 1960s early 1970s.

Three of the top nine proposals of new playground equipment were presented to the board: Little Tikes equipment from ParKreation, Valparaiso; GameTime equipment from Sinclair Recreation, Holland, Mich.; and Burke equipment from Fond du Lac, Wisc. All three involved challenges for kids and were ADA accessible. The Little Tikes playground was approved at a cost of $29,977.06.

The new equipment will include a swing set, turning and chinning bar, fun wheel, sway net, pod climber, snake poke, slide, rock challenge wall and numerous other pieces of equipment and fibar with fibar-felt ground cover. The entire area will be 68 feet, 4 inches by 56 feet by 1- inch or 3,795 square feet.

The board also approved the tear down of the old equipment. Plummer stated new equipment request will be taken to the Warsaw Board of Pubic Works meeting on June 5. Removal of the old equipment will begin as well as site preparation for the new equipment. Several months are expected before the new equipment is installed.

Plummer noted approximately five years ago some equipment had been removed from the park. The request for new equipment did not include spiral slides, tubes or tunnels. Tunnels and tubes on other parks have experienced vandalism.

The goal is to encompass the new equipment with the ride-walk program proposed to go through the area with the Market Street project.

It was noted Warsaw was one of the cities that provides safe playground equipment for use. This year there was a total of 20-24 hazards noted, while the first year an audit was done there were hundreds of hazards noted on playground equipment.

Playground equipment to be removed