All play needs some work

LYNN – Olivia Lopez enjoys the cool breeze that blows past Ames Playground’s picnic tables, but she would like to see city workers clean up and make repairs in the Strawberry Avenue park.”I like the park, but they need to clean up what people throw on the ground,” she said.Ames’ swings and slide are in good shape, but a plastic glass window in the raised play structure is broken and the basketball court has a single rim but no net.”It’s ridiculous – you rarely see kids here,” said Aramis Llano.The 17-year-old plays basketball in recently renovated Henry Avenue Playground, but Llano wishes he could shoot hoops with his friends in Ames. He thinks playgrounds across the city need improvements, but city Associate Public Works Commissioner Lisa Nerich said “80 percent” of the city’s 22 playgrounds are “in good shape.”The City Council set the stage in 2013 to spend part of $4 million in borrowed money to fix up parks and playgrounds, including Magnolia Avenue, Sheridan Street, Sagamore Street, Frey, Barry, the play area near Callahan School, Gallagher, Clark Street and Cook Street.The city added a splash pad in Flax Pond playground with a second one built near McManus Field and a third planned for Kiley Playground. The concrete pads are built around a fountain kids can run through.A veteran city employee who started her career as a Frey Playground instructor, Nerich said city park upkeep work begins in the spring, when ballfields at Gallagher, Keaney, McManus and Barry fields are prepared for baseball and softball teams.With the approach of each summer, the maintenance work shifts to playgrounds and continues through the hot months, when Nerich said city-run programs attract more than 500 children to local playgrounds.Places where people can relax and play in Lynn range from what Nerich called the city’s “gems” – Lynn Woods, Gannon Municipal Golf Course and Manning and Fraser fields – to parks with ballfields used by school and park leagues to playgrounds tucked away on side streets like River and Smith streets.Jessica Lopez, 10, likes Ames’ raised play structure – and so do her friends.”All the kids like to come,” she said.Nerich said city officials respond to residents’ calls about playground upkeep needs and workers also periodically check parks and playgrounds for maintenance needs.”We do an inventory on all the parks. A list is compiled and a DPW employee will attend to the work order,” she said.Nerich said Clark Street Playground is scheduled for improvements. Llano said making playgrounds “kid-friendly” should be the city’s goal.