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SCHENECTADY
Playground to offer fun, challenges
City buys 82 pieces of equipment for Tiny Tots Land
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

The new handicapped-accessible, million-dollar playground being built at Central Park will also serve as therapy for children, teaching them how to walk and use their arms as they play.
The city decided Monday to purchase 82 new pieces of equipment to fi ll the former Tiny Tots Land. The items can be used by all children — disabled or not — and run the gamut from the typical swing set to an unusual rockclimbing wall.
    While it’s all designed to be fun, the equipment comes with a further purpose. Most of the new items are recommended by national disability advocate groups as the ideal equipment to encourage children to challenge their limits.
    There are handholds throughout the raised platforms to support children who can barely walk. At the slides and tunnel, there are handholds to help children learn how to transfer themselves out of their wheelchairs. The tunnel is also lined with “pull-through” grips so children who cannot walk can navigate it.
    Much of the equipment has also been designed for children without disabilities. They’ll be enjoying climbing to the top of the new rock wall, while children with disabilities can do pull-ups on the lower grips to develop upperbody strength. They, too, can eventually reach the top, a goal that experts say will be far more motivating than regular therapy.
    Children who can sit up — disabled or not — have a slide to race down, while those who haven’t yet mastered sitting can still gain a measure of independence by using the “slither” slide.
    There will be a few items that disabled children aren’t likely to be able to use, including a twisty staircase to a platform with a telescope.
    But unlike the previous platform at the site, children in wheelchairs will be able to reach the heights. Ramps connect all three new platforms to each other and the ground, and items on the platforms — like the telescope — are supposed to be installed within arm’s reach of a child sitting in a wheelchair. Previously, children could reach just one low area at the playground, and even there, the toys on the wall were just out of reach.
    The new playground will also feature three types of swings — baby swings, wheelchair-accessible swings, and regular swings. The wheelchair-accessible swings will be placed near the others so the children can interact while they swing.
    The original concept behind Tiny Tots Land won’t be forgotten in the new plan. It calls for 15 items to be placed in a separate area for children ages 2 to 5. Those children get their own rock wall — a low, tunnel-like wall with child-sized grips to help players learn to stand and climb.
    The equipment will cost $262,000, but none of that will come from the city. The county offered the city the grant funds used to buy the playground equipment. The state also paid for most of the surface improvements, including an expensive rubberized ground material that will cover the entire site. The material allows wheelchairs to roll along smoothly instead of getting bogged down in dirt and sand.
    The state chipped in $440,000 for the $1 million project, and the county gave the city $375,000. The city spent about $200,000 on sidewalks and handicapped parking, which Commissioner of General Services Carl Olsen said he realized was needed when he toured other handicap-accessible playgrounds.
    “I saw playgrounds that were accessible, but literally you couldn’t get there,” he said. “Sure, it was accessible — if you could walk.”
    The sidewalks and playground surface cost more than all of the playground equipment put together. But finding the money to pay for that wasn’t the only challenge. City officials also wanted to design a handicap-accessible playground that would draw children who weren’t disabled.
    “The notion is to get all children, regardless of their level of ability, playing together,” said Councilman Mark Blanchfield. “This is a very significant project for the city. It’s really giving access to all children. It’s not limited to children with mobility restrictions.”
    It wasn’t easy to do — Olsen and others spent years applying for grants before they could afford the variety of equipment that would be needed — but Olsen thinks the final product will be quite popular.
    “It’s definitely cool. You’ve never seen a playground like this before,” he said.
    The playground should be complete by the first week of October, Olsen said.

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The equipment will cost $262,000, but none of that will come from the city. The county offered the city the grant funds used to buy the playground equipment. The state also paid for most of the surface improvements, including an expensive rubberized ground material that will cover the entire site. The material allows wheelchairs to roll along smoothly instead of getting bogged down in dirt and sand.
    The state chipped in $440,000 for the $1 million project, and the county gave the city $375,000. The city spent about $200,000 on sidewalks and handicapped parking, which Commissioner of General Services Carl Olsen said he realized was needed when he toured other handicap-accessible playgrounds.

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SCHENECTADY
Special gear is awaited for park Playground aims for certification as disabled-friendly
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    The city is awaiting arrival of specialized equipment to finish the Capital Region’s first playground that meets a national gold standard of full accessibility by children with disabilities, a Schenectady official said.
    General Services Commissioner Carl Olsen said he expects to complete the $1 million project by October, as scheduled. The city is converting the traditional Central Park children’s play area into a new playground to serve all children up to age 12.
    The length of the project and its disruption of the Tiny Tots area near the pavilion irritates at least one resident.
    Delores Inzero, who is disabled, questioned why the city is taking so long to complete the project.
    “They tore it apart before summer started and they did everything but Tiny Tots Land,” she said.
    Olsen said the city is awaiting the arrival of 82 pieces of playground equipment, costing around $262,000, to complete the project, which began in June. The equipment will rest on rubber surfaces and will be custom-designed with handholds, ramps and other features for children with disabilities. It will be divided into areas for children ages 2 to 5, 5 to 12 and 2 to 12 to play but serve children of all ages.
    Olsen said the city first had to make the area around the playground handicapped-accessible.
    “This was part of the plan. To build a handicapped-accessible playground and not have the area around it accessible would not create an accessible park, would it?” he asked.
    The city needed to make major improvements to the park as part of the project, Olsen said.
    “We needed to create surface improvements, create protected pedestrian areas that did not exist, create handicapped parking spots that are clearly marked. There is lead time associated with the equipment; it has to be manufactured, delivered and installed,” he said.
    The city also installed new lighting and had to upgrade the park’s electrical service, Olsen said. The work had to be done during the summer construction season, as it involved paving and concrete.
    “It will be a stellar playground. There aren’t too many playgrounds like this in the state,” Olsen said.
    Boundless Playgrounds, a national nonprofit group dedicated to helping communities create barrier-free playgrounds, is expected to certify the playground once it’s completed.
    Certification means the playground offers complete accessibility to people, from when they get out of their vehicles to when they enter the playground and everywhere within the play area, said Monique Farias, Boundless spokeswoman.
    “It is important for all children to experience play and for all children to be inclusive in an environment,” Farias said. “Our focus is not that everyone can do everything but that everyone can do something. We make playgrounds friendly for children and for their parents and grandparents.”
    The Central Park playground would be Boundless’ seventh in New York and one of about 100 nationwide it has certified.
    Boundless provided $10,000 toward the project. It will spot-check the playground to ensure that the city maintains it properly and will revoke certification should it become inaccessible, Farias said. The county contributed $365,000 to the project, the city $200,000 and the state $440,000.

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Quoted from Salvatore:
This here is a nice thing that makes for happy times over there for the under - priviledged kiddies so this is something I agree with indeed.

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"There aren’t too many playgrounds like this in the state,” Olsen said.

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Quoted from Salvatore:
well if they need to borrow over there they gotta do something good for the kids indeed

• "borrow" from who?
  
• Are you advocating deficit spending?
  
• How will the loan be repaid and by who?
  

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SCHENECTADY
Playground for everyone nears finish Area handicapped-accessible
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.

    The drums have been hung tantalizingly close to the ground, ready for small hands to pound.
    Workers have anchored the curved rock-climbing wall, with its handholds to support a handicapped child’s first steps or an adventurous toddler’s first climb.
    It’s almost ready. In less than a month, children will be able to enter the city’s first handicappedaccessible playground, which has been in the works for years and was funded by the state, county and city.
    Workers expect to finish installing the equipment by the end of next week. Then they’ll pour 240 tons of gravel on Central Park’s former Tiny Tot Land, followed by a rubberized surface that won’t bog down a wheelchair.
    If the weather holds, children will be welcome at the new playground by the third week of October, Commissioner of General Services Carl Olsen said.
    Already, the $1 million playground is attracting youngsters, who stared longingly Tuesday at the slides, tunnels and rock wall that had already been installed.
    Even the adults who are putting the park together love the toys. They can’t stop playing with one of the items for the music corner, a spinning device that repeats the player’s words at higher and higher pitches, along with various sound effects.
    The music corner is designed to challenge a child’s developing motor skills with bells that must be tapped, chimes that ring when a knob is twisted, horns that only play after a button is pressed and drums that need a good hard pounding.
    The rest of the playground is a study in developmental play as well. Every device is designed to push handicapped children to their limits, improving their ability to grab, touch and walk.
    The apparatus is also designed to allow all children to play together, handicapped or fully mobile. Ramps allow children in wheelchairs to join other children at the top of small towers that were once only accessible by ladder. Toys embedded in the walls, including a maze that must be spun to direct a ball bearing, are now at a proper height for a seated child. Previously, such toys hung just out of reach for children in wheelchairs.
    Almost all of the Tiny Tot Land toys have been removed, although many of them will be relocated to other playgrounds in the city after being refurbished this winter. A dozen old bouncing horses, lions and birds have been dragged out of the ground to make room for a tall bulldozer that half a dozen children can sit on together.
    There is no sign yet naming the playground, but near one entrance hangs a car, complete with steering wheel and shifter. The license plate on the front of the car, which faces the entrance, reads “NO LIMITS.”