If you think building a children’s playground involves a few swing sets, slides, a trip to Home Depot and few thousand bucks –think again.
Officials at Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 are now reconsidering plans for a redesigned playground after the low bidder for a new playground came in at a $800,000.
The district wants to redesign an aging playground next to the former May Whitney Elementary School demolition site, but now fears the cost may be too expensive.
“Last year, when we approved the demolition of May Whitney, we knew a part of that plan was to put in a new early childhood playground,” said Board President Kathy Brown. “Then, when it got time to receive the bids, the numbers were astronomically larger than we had anticipated they would be.”
Facilitates Director Lyle Erstad said the district is looking at what other options there are. One suggestion is to rebid a scaled down version of the playground project, he said.
The highest bid for a new playground, which also involves drainage work as well as sidewalks and shrubbery, was $975,000, Erstad said.
“We were all shocked by the numbers for the playground,” Brown said, adding steps need to be taken to reduce the cost to be fiscally responsible.
Parents are awaiting a new playground there, but board members feel they may not be able to proceed until the costs have been reduced, Brown said.
Erstad said he will address the board again at an upcoming town meeting after he meets with a consultant on ways to reduce the cost.
Board member Doug Goldberg said the district had originally budgeted $500,000 for site restoration and now costs have continued to rise for the associated playground. When drainage work is included, the playground cost adds up to $1.4 million, he said.
Although it is important to have adequate play facilities, officials must “look at what our options may be” before they can proceed, he said.
A PTO parent group has raised funds for the playground and parents also emailed the school district last week raising safety concerns about the old playground.
“Because there has been so much rain and then snow, that playground becomes very wet and almost creates an ice skating rink situation,” Erstad said. “So we need to take that into account when we consider this particular issue.”
Reducing the cost of the playground by utilizing used equipment is difficult because of legal liabilities, he said.
The site of the playground is at the abandoned May Whitney School building, which permanently closed in August 2007 because of dangerously high asbestos and mold levels. The school was demolished last summer at a cost of $625,000.
Mold has also been found above ceilings of hallways and classrooms in 17 locations at Seth Paine Elementary School where remediation efforts last year cost nearly $300,000.
