Aroa Jimenez, left, and Lorena Diaz, right, use the new swings at the Superior Street playground in Swampscott. Item Photo by Owen O’Rourke
By Gayla Cawley
SWAMPSCOTT — The newly renovated Superior Street playground was spotlighted on Sunday.
The Swampscott Open Space and Recreation Plan Committee hosted a short dedication ceremony at the playground, located off Superior Street, adjacent to the Swampscott Housing Authority complex on Duncan Terrace. Residents were invited to bring their children to check out the new play structures.
Gino Cresta, department of public works (DPW) director, said prior to the $20,000 update, the playground only had three swings and a slide. That equipment was installed about 20 years ago. The outdated play equipment was replaced with new swings and a slide, a handicap accessible picnic table, benches and fencing. Several dead trees were cleared out.
Work was completed over the summer and took about a month. Before the upgrade, Cresta said the playground wasn’t used too much.
“Now, it’s been cleaned up and with the new equipment, it’s getting quite a bit of use,” he said.
The idea for the renovation came after residents in that part of town were saying the park was neglected and there was some illegal activity going on. A few of them went to the open space committee, Cresta said.
One of the open space committee’s goals is to develop playground maintenance, equipment replacement and safety programs at all school and town playgrounds. The revamping of the Superior Street playground was a step in fulfilling that goal.
“One way of making a neighborhood more of community, rather than just a collection of streets and buildings is to have community spaces where people can interact, such as public playgrounds,” the committee wrote in a statement.
The next playground Cresta hopes to renovate is on Windsor Avenue. He plans to start the project next year. The playground needs the same work as Superior Street, but is a much larger area with an estimated cost of $40,000, according to Cresta.
But Danielle Strauss, recreation director, has her eye on the Phillips Park playground as the next space for a facelift. With the artificial turf soon underway at Blocksidge Field, she said the playground there would need to be taken down. She would like to see it rebuilt within the park space there and plans on asking for funds this year for the project, which she estimates would cost $50,000.
From there, she’ll focus on play areas at Windsor Avenue and Linscott Park. For Superior Park, the neighborhood has also asked for another climbing apparatus, but Strauss said there is no money in the budget to do that.
“My plan and the plan of the open space and recreation committee is to petition the town to refurbish all of our parks and playgrounds,” Strauss said. “Most of these playgrounds were put in (during) the 1950s and no one has updated them since then. Superior was our first effort to start refurbishing playgrounds.”
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.