The large playground at Central Winds Park has been closed for nearly two months, and the city says it is in no hurry to reopen it until it settles whether to repair the aging equipment or replace it outright.
Parks workers shut the play structure in August after a routine inspection turned up rust on several parts of it, city communications director Matt Reeser told WKMG News 6 on Tuesday. "There are some spots and some brackets that have rusted," he said, and those areas were judged unsafe.
The playground sits inside the city's 113-acre park and was built in 2006 for about $200,000, according to the city.
Repair or replace
Reeser said repairs could run upward of $70,000. The city has not priced a full replacement. WKMG reported that the repair work had been planned for the 2028 fiscal year.
The decision is tangled up with the city's wider budget outlook, including how Amendment 3 fares in the election, WKMG reported. "With Amendment 3 coming along and budget uncertainty with some aspects of things, wanted to really take a look at it and make sure that we could actually either afford to replace it or to fix it," Reeser said.
