The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
PLAYGROUND SAFETY AT ISSUE
Village officials respond to potential hazards posed at Lee Lydic Park
Perry Village government leaders are considering ways to make Lee Lydic Park’s playground a safer place for children.
The village has responded quickly to address concerns about potential hazards posed by a slide that’s part of a climbing playset. But council members and administrators also are exploring the purchase of new equipment on which children can have fun, as well as moving the playground to a more suitable section of the park.
Discussions about the playground’s current status and future role at the park on Call Road took place at the most recent Village Council meeting.
Councilman Mike Glover launched the conversation when he began recapping the July 22 meeting of the village Parks Committee.
“Has anyone gone down to the playground and taken a look at the equipment?” he
asked his colleagues at the Aug. 12 council meeting.
Glover said that he had visited the playground earlier that day and measured the distance between the base of a spiral slide — where children exit the apparatus — and the woodchip surface below.
“And I would say just guessing here, a normal slide should let the child off about 12 inches above the ground,” Glover said. “That slide drops off at about 30 inches — a 2 ½ foot drop.”
To get a different perspective, Glover asked a father who was at the park with his 2 ½-year-old daughter to have her stand in front of the slide’s base.
“That slide dropped off at her shoulders, and she was a normal 2 ½-yearold,” Glover said. “It’s dangerous.”
In addition, the lower part of the spiral slide has about a 12-inch long crack that’s about 3/4 of an inch wide.
“This (slide) needs to be, in my opinion, taken out and replaced,” he said. “We discussed that at the Parks Committee meeting, and I think it was everyone else’s opinion that that should be done, as well.”
Village Solicitor James O’Leary said that he would be reluctant to let children continue playing on the spiral slide until it could be assessed by a qualified inspector.
Because the slide is part of an interconnected playset, council members agreed that removing just the slide might have posed further hazards to kids climbing on and through the apparatus. So at the Aug. 12 meeting, council consented to closing off the entire climbing playset as a safety precaution.
The village Public Works Department went to the park on Aug. 13, wrapped caution tape around all sides of the playset, and installed signs at all entry points to the apparatus stating, “Climbing playset closed for inspection.” That same sign was placed beside an access road where visitors enter Lee Lydic Park.
The village is seeking the services of a specialist who could check not only the condition of the slide, but also the structural integrity of the entire playset, which is estimated be more than 20 years old.
Troy Hager, the village’s public works superintendent, said on Aug. 16 that he’s contacted a representative of the company that built the playset. Hager also has reached out to the Lake County General Health District’s Environmental Health Division to see if its staff could offer assistance.
Councilman Elias Coss said he believed that the village made a wise decision to close the whole climbing playset, pending an inspection of the structure.
“I think it’s in our best interest to shut it down, at least temporarily, and get the right people in here to take a look at it … and let them tell us what we should do,” Coss said.
If the village ends up receiving a recommendation to replace the playset instead of repairing it, the community’s Parks Committee already has started doing its homework on new structures.
“We are at the very beginning stages of information gathering,” Glover said.
He added that the panel is doing research on possible grants and will request quotes from multiple companies that manufacture playground equipment and surfaces.
Another topic that the Parks Committee has discussed is moving the playground to another location on the Call Road property.
“Right now, the playground is underneath trees with a lot of dead limbs — 50 percent of those trees are dead,” Glover said. “There’s dead limbs all over the ground all the time.”
As an alternative, the Park Committee has suggested relocating the playground to a grassy area directly east of the existing site.
The suggested area for the new playground would be located on the same southern side of the park access road, on land that is east of a shed and garage, and west of a gravel parking lot.
The new playground site, once a few trees are removed, would be more out in the open than the current one, which could offer a safer environment for kids to play, Glover noted.
“(The existing playground) is very close to woods,” he said. “You’d hate for something to happen where a child might get lured into the woods (by a person with bad intentions). But looking at it, that possibility is there.”