SWAMPSCOTT — The newly-renovated Windsor Avenue park and playground will include a climbing gym, swings, benches and a combination basketball and pickleball court.
In a neighborhood meeting Wednesday night, Community Development Director Marzie Galazka presented the draft design of the park renovation, for which funding was approved at last week’s annual Town Meeting.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to enhance the playground features,” Galazka said.
Town Meeting allocated $40,000, which will be reimbursed by the state’s Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities (PARC) grant program, on top of another $40,000 approved by a previous town meeting.
As presented, the accessible playground design includes the climbing gym, two swings — one with a bucket seat for younger children — and two “rockers,” which children can climb on. A poured-rubber surface will be installed below the playground elements to provide for safe, soft landings.
Some residents in Wednesday’s meeting requested that the playground include more swings, as those are the most popular features at the current playground.
“Right now there are four swings, and still there is a line with kids waiting for the swings,” said resident Elena Davidovski.
Galazka said that the current design with two swings was due to a required “safety zone” to allow for full extension of the swingset and a safe “landing distance”, but added that the design team could take another look at the plans to see if more swings could be added.
Another concern raised by neighbors was lack of parking — although Galazka noted that most visitors to neighborhood parks come from within a quarter-mile radius — and therefore it is unlikely that there would be much car traffic coming to the area. She did say that the town could consider designating street parking spaces for park visitors.
Other residents of the neighborhood brought up concerns about bad language, loud music and littering by some park visitors — specifically teens — who use the current basketball court, and requested that the proposal be changed to only offer a half-court so fewer of those visitors could come to the park.
“I can guarantee that 90 percent of the people that use that basketball court are not from this neighborhood,” said one resident in the meeting. “It’s supposed to be a community park, and if the people that are coming to this park to use the basketball court are using foul language and disrupting the community that’s here, then maybe we should change something about the park so we can make it more for the community that’s here.”
Galazka said that while the architectural team could look at tweaking the design, she encouraged anyone with concerns about disturbances caused by park users to report it to police.
The town will begin seeking bids for the construction of the playground after July 1, when the new fiscal year begins and the funds become available.
