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November 17, 2009

Parents speak out about lack of playground planning



The library at Second District Elementary School wasn’t a place for quiet contemplation Tuesday night as parents from First District and East End elementary schools confronted Crawford Central School Board about a lack of adequate planning for playground space at both schools.

In the end, John Hayes, project manager for Thomas & Williamson Program Management, gave the parents a ray of hope. While the playground provided at First District is significantly smaller than the playground in place before the building underwent extensive renovations, a large stormwater drain in the middle of the new playground made the situation even worse. Fears that the drain would be blocked after the first rainfall meant that mulch hasn’t been applied to the play surface, leaving children playing in mud at the first sign of moisture.

“There’s something that can be put over the drain that will keep the mulch out of the drain,” Hayes said, indicating that a suitable top for the drain could be constructed in the immediate future.

Dave Dickson, the district’s supervisor of buildings and grounds, also announced that signs forbidding a left turn for traffic exiting the parking lot should be arriving soon, a change expected to smooth the flow of traffic leaving the lot.

Both those steps, however, leave a bigger problem unresolved.

Part of the districtwide upgrade of all six of Crawford Central’s elementary facilities that’s now under way, First District is almost complete, while East End is expected to be finished before school starts at the beginning of the 2010-11 school year.

Parents from both attendance areas appealed to the board for more playground space during an October work session. Tuesday night they were back.

Christine Norwood, president of First District’s PTO, told the board that a playground specialist is coming to Meadville to tell a group of concerned First District parents what can be done with the available space. “First District is landlocked,” she said. “Property acquisition is our only hope.”

Part of the renovation reconfigured the North Main Street side of the structure, creating U-shaped driveway where buses can pull in off the street to drop off and pick up their young passengers. While plans originally called for cars parked in the parking lot at the side and rear of the building to exit onto Highland Avenue, those plans were changed early on. As a result, already scarce playground space was sacrificed for a turnaround to enable cars to both enter and leave the lot via North Main.

Board member Frank Schreck had a suggestion. “Put the parking lot (at the front of the school) where the buses pull in and put the buses back on the street where they’ve been for God knows how long,” he suggested, noting that the “track” area now occupying much of the school’s front yard is now “scorched earth.”

Norwood noted that First District parents were examining all the alternatives they could think of — including looking into putting playgrounds on top of the school. “There’s plenty of room on the roof — no shade, but plenty of room,” she said.

Property acquisition may be an option, but whether it can be done before the renovation project is complete and the board is sure exactly how much — if any — money remains in the budget remains an open question.



Mary Spicer can be reached at 724-6370, ext. 280, or by e-mail at mspicer@meadvilletribune.com.

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